As the world shut down, charities and church groups in Kent stepped up, working non-stop throughout the pandemic providing essential services to those in need.

Volunteers from one church in Tunbridge Wells saw the opportunity to feed families who may be struggling by distributing food packages.

The St Philip’s Community Larder is a group led by volunteers from St Philip’s Church, on Birken Road.

Using surplus food from Tesco’s Community Food Connection scheme with charity FareShare, volunteers have been providing fresh, nutritious meals for families struggling through lockdown.

After 10 weeks of operation, it is currently serving 50 homes in the area.

Children’s pastor Lisa Glasscote said: “When lockdown started and the demand on the food banks increased, we decided we needed to do something to help. Our church is based on an estate in Tunbridge Wells that houses many young families and emergency housing, so we are well placed to reach many people.

“We like to make sure that families can collect the food necessary to make a healthy meal, and the wonderful donations from Tesco often include bread, fruits and vegetables to go towards this, and sometimes chilled foods.

“Volunteers collect from the stores in Pembury and Aylesford, and the staff we deal with are very friendly and helpful and we’re grateful for the support provided.”

St Philip’s is just one of thousands of community groups, food banks, and charities across the UK being supported by donations from supermarkets.

A Christian charity with a similar goal is Making a Difference in Maidstone (MADM). The charity which operates from its shop on Church Street has been working tirelessly to make sure nobody goes hungry.

Before the pandemic, this was something MADM did on a regular basis. But as the crisis hit, MADM stepped up collections of surplus food from Aldi on Well Road, Marks and Spencer on Week Street, and Morrisons on Sutton road, which volunteers then distributed across the community.

Founder of MADM Amanda Sidwell said: "We were open and active every day, when I know many charities were not able to be. We only closed Sundays and occasional Saturdays.

"When lockdown first started, we saw a true abundance of surplus come in which ranged from two to 30 crates in any one day.

"At one point we even had 100 loaves of bread come in. Marks and Spencer also gave us approximately 500 packs of hot cross buns over the Easter period and we collected 1,344 punnets of the most divine blueberries.

"As things have reopened, we have been picking up slightly less but we shall continue to collect on our allocated days."

Some of the places MADM has delivered to include Maidstone Hospital, police and fire stations, care and residential homes and Covid-19 support groups.

Read more: All the latest news from Maidstone

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