In Pictures: Morrisons in Leamington works with the community to help tackle holiday hunger in the Warwick district

The summer holidays are tough times for some families, as the children who get free school meals sadly will struggle to get a meal during the holidays.

During August, Morrisons in Leamington stepped up by donating £150 of food to support community centre Young People First, based at Jubilee House in Leamington.

The donation meant that the team could support the children who attend by offering breakfast and snacks.

Morrisons also donated fruit to support holiday club, Fit 4 Kids at Westgate Primary School with Simon Arnold - and five bags of food, full of essential food items to support families who attend the holiday club who might be struggling to fill the cupboards up.

Morrisons’ Community Champion Alexandra Pearson also asked for the community to rally up to help their appeals, which included food rallies in the supermarket car park over five days.

Young people first, Lillington Youth Centre, 2nd Warwick Sea Scouts, Warwick Lions and LWS Night Shelter all took part in the rally and asked for food donations to support.

They were also joined by special guests each day, including the Mayor of Leamington, Cllr Nick Wilkins, Commonwealth boxing gold medallist Lewis Williams, The High Sheriff of Warwickshire, David Kelham and the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr Parminder Singh Birdi.

Alex said: "We have the best community and most supportive community I could ask for and I am so proud.

“We had so many donations and I really thought sometimes we wouldn't be able to fill the bay.

"But we did and they did it every single time. Our customers are so generous and the food they donated will really support a lot of children and families.

"Seeing the children doing the food rally was amazing as they started off shy but then became so confident. We sometimes forget asking people we don't know for a donation is very scary but they did it.

"It really was heart-warming to see. We even let the young people have a go at the announcement system to let our customers know who they are and who they are collecting for. All of them smashed it, even the High Sheriff.

“In total we filled 181 crates for the week and all went to different places in our community to support.

"It was amazing to see people come out with a trolley full of items and just two things for themselves, some customers came in every day and donated every time they visited the store.

"It was so overwhelming and heart-warming to see the kindness from our customers, during these testing times people are still being generous."

Alex also said they will continue to support community centres and holiday hunger, with Morrisons already giving surplus food to local causes, such as food banks through its unsold food programme.

In addition, its in-store Food Bank ‘Pick Up Pack’ scheme, allows customers to purchase a bag filled with a mix of food products, which are distributed to local food banks and community organisations by in-store Community Champions supporting individuals and families.