MKFM Food Bank campaign smashes 50,000 target with over 64,000 tins collected

Milton Keynes local radio station MKFM’s campaign to collect 50,000 tins of food for the MK Food Bank over 90 days has significantly overachieved its goal, with 64,112 tins collected by the radio station for the local community.

The tins collected over the three-month campaign will be used in part to help feed local children who will be without Free School Meals over the Summer period.

MKFM’s Darren and Lia launched the campaign in response to news that there are now 2,000 Food Banks operated around the UK, with 12 of those being in Milton Keynes.

The collection was aided with additional help from Tesco, who operated a week of activity inside their stores, and London Midland, who announced about our collection on train services running through Milton Keynes Central.

Holiday Inn Central Milton Keynes also assisted the campaign, with a donation of £2,000 allowing the Food Bank to purchase 6,000 tins for the campaign.

In response to the news, Project Manager at MK Food Bank John Marshall said “We’ve had a tremendous response from the local community and companies to the MKFM 50,000 Tins campaign. We are so grateful. Our warehouse is overflowing with tinned food that will help sustain our service for the rest of this year.”

“This has been such a boost for the families and children that use our service. We hope people will continue to donate at our supermarket collection points to help us meet the increased demand over the winter months.”

As well as the huge number of donations, the Food Bank have also reported that donations at their usual collection points have increased over the campaign period and they have also had several new volunteers wishing to come on board.

Darren Dorrington, Managing Director said “Not only did we want to do something for MK’s 50th Birthday (hence the 50,000 target), we wanted to do something that would make a difference to our listeners. The more we heard about children relying on free school dinners the more we knew we had to do something to feed families during the summer holidays. 64,112 tins shows you what Milton Keynes can do when we come together.”

Significant donations from members of the public included a Tesco delivery driver from Bletchley who donated £500 which has purchased 900 large cartons of long life Orange Juice.