The idea came from one of our supporters and it just took off. We've already had more than 50 street and village Tin Tuesday collections. Many are still collecting and new locations are being added every week.

We are hugely grateful to Tin Tuesday organisers and donors for keeping us supplied in tough times. It also reflects our ethos of building community. Tin Tuesday is a way streets can build community in their locality whilst helping the broader community.

We're working with 120 people in need every week and that number is expected to rise significantly very soon. Christmas is usually our peak period, but we started 2020 with higher-than-usual numbers, then there were the floods, then Covid-19, so requests for help have stayed high. Everyone has to have a referral from a professional or recognised organisation to come to us, and most people only have help for two or three weeks, but these days more need food for longer. We’ve seen a real increase in those losing their jobs and families using our services.

We measure donations and food parcels by weight – so a family will be given about 40kg for a week. That's three meals a day for seven days. This includes the Tuesday tins but also a 'market stall' pack of fresh produce and fruit juice, plus snacks and treats. We also add in laundry and personal essentials such as washing powder, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo and shower gel and other toiletries. Really whatever people would usually buy from a supermarket goes into a parcel.

Everyone needs variety and well balanced meals, and we all deserve a treat like a bag of crisps, biscuits or chocolate now and then. Our focus is on good quality tinned main meals, vegetables and fruit. We add in pasta, sauces and tinned puddings, jam, marmalade, cereals, tea, coffee, milk - standard stuff we all usually have in the cupboard.

Out of date food. We ask donors to try for the longest sell by dates.

Anyone with access to the internet can do an online supermarket order and have it delivered to us at the Barnabas Centre in Longden Coleham, SY37DN. We are also happy to receive donations by cheque or bank transfer – these are usually put into the general foodbank plus funds for all our work, but donors can specify they want the money spent on food if they wish. www.barnabascommunityprojects.org/donations

Please keep going because the need for Tin Tuesday collections has not dropped at all. And if people can start collecting those big, deep, flat bottomed bags for life we will be launching a special appeal for them later in the year for Christmas. Yes, we are planning that far ahead! We expect to need around 450 bags in December.

Thank you. A hundred thank yous. It's hard to sum up in a couple of sentences the huge impact you and your donations have every week. To know someone cares in your own community, makes a world of difference. We couldn't do this without your kindness and generosity.