SHOPPERS are being asked to help the homeless this autumn as a supermarket launches a charity drive.

Sainsbury’s Talbot Heath is backing the charity Hope For Food in an effort which will last throughout the festive season.

The supermarket will be supporting the charity’s soup kitchens by supplying vegetables until the new year. The soup kitchens, which are run in Bournemouth three times a week, can feed up to 100 people at any time.

Shoppers are invited to do their bit by leaving donations in collection bins at the front of the store on Alder Hills until January.

Customers can donate essentials such as underwear, socks, gloves, blankets and sleeping bags, along with non-perishable food such as pasta, rice, sugar, tea, coffee, biscuits, soups, cereals and noodles.

Gordon Silvester, manager of Sainsbury’s Talbot Heath, said: “This is a fantastic service that Hope For Food provide and we are delighted in supporting them in this build up to the festive season.

“We at Sainsbury’s really do believe that Christmas is for sharing and no one should be alone without anything this year, so we have decided as a store to run this campaign in our store alongside this year's toy appeal.”

Gaynor Mammadeh of Hope for Food added: “We are delighted that Sainsbury’s are helping to support us this year. We are finding it very hard to help all that need it and without the great support of the general public we would not cope with the demand.

“Also it is now not just the homeless who are now attending our soup kitchens it is also families who are in poverty.”

Hope for Food’s soup kitchen has been established for more than three years and meets at Richmond Hill St Andrew’s Church in Bournemouth on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6.30-7.30pm, and St Alban’s Church in Charminster on Saturdays, 6-7pm.

Hope for Food is holding a Christmas dinner on December 22, from 6pm, at Richmond Hill St Andrew’s. Anyone who can help with a donation or would like to volunteer should contact David Mayes on info@hopeforfood.org.uk