GENEROUS shoppers have dug deep to provide thousands of meals for those on the bread-line.

Tesco customers in Brighton and Hove helped to donate 6,540 meals for people in need as part of a national appeal.

Meals were donated following the neighbourhood food collection that took place in every Tesco store across Britain during the first weekend of July.

asda A Tesco spokesman said that support for the food collection was at astonishing levels across Brighton and Hove but customers at Hove were the most generous.

The store collected 5,649 meals made up of long-life milk, cereals and tinned vegetables and fruit during the weekend thanks to customers’ generosity and a 30% top-up from the supermarket giant.

The latest Neighbourhood Food Collection was held in partnership with food-banks charity The Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare. The food collected will go to individuals and families living in food poverty. Food poverty is thought to become even more of an urgent issue during the summer months when low-income families can no longer rely on free school meals.

Michael Germain, store manager at the Hove superstore in Church Road, said: “The response from our customers, colleagues and volunteers has been incredible.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Tesco and their customers as we will now be able to provide the 1,290 charities we support with more of the food they need.”