A MALDON supermarket has donated more than £2,000 to an organisation helping feed the needy in the town.

Marks & Spencer gifted £2,100 to Churches Together in Maldon, who run the Maldon Food Pantry, a food bank supporting people in the area, with money collected from the sales of 5p carrier bags.

Rob Sefton, who runs the pantry based at Maldon Elim Pentecostal Church, in Wantz Road, said the money would make a huge difference.

He said: “Marks & Spencer in Maldon have donated to us £2,100 in cash which is fantastic. It is all money collected from their 5p bags and we want to say a big thank you to them for their donation.

“The shop has helped us in the past. They did a collection in store for us a few months back and raised more than £1,000 then, and have named us their charity of the year for this year.

“What we do is collect food to make food parcels for those in need in Maldon and the surrounding area.

“Often we run out of items to fill the food bags with, but what this money does is allow us to restock our supplies so that we can continue to help people.”

Ivonne Faithful, from Maldon’s Marks & Spencer, said: “Every year we nominate a local charity to fundraise for and this year we settled on the local food bank, Churches Together in Maldon, to be the beneficiary.

“The fundraising has probably been going on for just over a year, and we have been donating all of our leftover food to the group as well to try and help them out wherever possible.

“We try and support them as much as we can and we are delighted to be able to hand over this money.”