Thousands of struggling North East families to have Christmas dinner thanks to help
Feeding Families have a number of initiatives
A North East charity says thousands of people will have Christmas dinner on the table thanks to help from the community.
Feeding Families has a number of initiatives like the Christmas food box and 'a matched Christmas dinner'.
Sarah McPhie, Head of Engagement, said: "We match a family who's in need to a family that would like to donate. They then go into our computer system, a donor family comes forward and picks that family and they buy the ingredients for a Christmas dinner and deliver it to the family this week. Currently in the system there's about 2,500 families and individuals.
"We're really lucky to be here in the North East because the communities are absolutely amazing at supporting and giving, but I suppose it's a double-edged sword because the levels of need are just so high. 35 percent of children living in the North East are living in poverty and 67 percent of those come from at least a one working adult household.
"In these Christmas boxes are about 21 items of food; you've got everything from absolute emergency essentials like pasta and sauce and some Christmas treats like Christmas cake, mince pies, gravy granules and tinned vegetables. We've had requests for over 10,000 of those food boxes this year.
"Christmas for us is just phenomenal. It's like we need a food mountain to get through. We manage to achieve this through food that gets donated into our packing centres, and also from donations which enable us to go out and to buy food to into those boxes."
Find out more on the Feeding Families North East website.