Shoppers are being encouraged to help out at the UK’s biggest food collection this week.

Tesco’s Neighbourhood Food Collection runs until Saturday, July 2. The scheme is run twice a year by the supermarket, foodbank charity The Trussell Trust and also redistribution charity FareShare.

The aim of the collection is to provide food for starving families and customers can donate food at the Workington and Whitehaven stores.

The North Lakes Foodbank, which is a member of the Trussell Trust network, provides emergency parcels containing three days’ supply of emergency food for people who have referred to them.

Last summer, four tonnes of food was donated to help people across Allerdale and Copeland.

The North Lakes Foodbank is looking in particular for items such as tinned meat, tinned vegetables, pasta, pasta sauces, tinned tuna, baked beans, tinned fruit, cereal bars, instant mashed potato and biscuits.

Jessie Hendry Gooding, project manager, said: "Every week we speak to people who never thought they’d face going hungry but something unexpected happened, an illness, redundancy, or the boiler breaking and they were thrown into crisis.

"We are glad we can be here to help but our work can only continue because of the unfailing generosity of the community."

Tesco will provide a financial 20 per cent top up based on the weight of the food collected.