Drake Circus customers donate over 250kg of food to local food bank

Visitors to Drake Circus and The Barcode during the festive period donated over 250kg of food and £1,600 in funds to support Plymouth Foodbank.

The centre joined forces with the food bank to help provide vital items to those most in need in the local community, opening a collection point at its customer service desk on the lower mall between 12th December and Christmas Eve.

A total of 251.58kg of essential food items and toiletries were donated by the people of Plymouth as they shopped at Drake Circus, including pasta sauces, cereals, and preserves and £1,652 was raised through PayPal donations and bucket collections.    

Plymouth Foodbank has seen an unprecedented 76 percent increase in demand for its services in the last year and estimates that the generous donations from Drake Circus customers will provide 225 meals for those in crisis in the community.        

Drake Circus has also donated £4,000 from the British Land community support fund to support Plymouth Foodbank’s ongoing work in the community.  

Greg Lumley, centre director at Drake Circus, which is owned by British Land, said: “We’re very proud to be part of such a generous community, it’s heart-warming to see so many people come together to help those who were less fortunate than them over the Christmas period.

“Plymouth Foodbank provides a vital service and as a centre we’re pleased to have been able to support them, both through contributions from our shoppers and a donation from our community support fund.”

Andrew Denham, Project Co-ordinator at Plymouth Foodbank, said: “We were simply blown away by the response of Drake Circus customers to our community collection point at the centre.

“A big thank you goes out to anyone who donated, your contributions are massively appreciated and will make a huge difference to the community.”        

To find out more information about Plymouth Foodbank, please visit: https://plymouth.foodbank.org.uk/.