BOURNEMOUTH University Students collected 2.2 tonnes of food at the Big Feed event for Bournemouth, Poole, Kinson and Christchurch foodbanks.

The charity event was held to help those in a crisis and to fight poverty.

Students were encouraging shoppers to buy extra food items to donate to the foodbanks at supermarkets including Waitrose in Winton, Tesco at Tower Park Poole and Asda in Bournemouth.

The teams of students competed against each other throughout the day in an attempt to collect as many food donations as possible.

Mark Elling, events manager at the charity The Trussell Trust, which manages the foodbanks, said: “We are trying to make people more aware of foodbanks.

Part of our mission is to inform people that there is a facility where people can go and get food when they are falling upon hard times.”

The final food pile was totalled at the end of the day, where an awards ceremony took place to congratulate all the participants. The grand total of 2.2 tonnes of food broke the last Big Feed record from September, during which 1.5 tonnes of food was donated.

The winning team, ‘WD40', managed to collect over 600kg of food. As well as the reward of taking part in a great deed for those less fortunate, they were also awarded a party at Bournemouth University’s student night club, The Old Fire Station.

Mr Elling added: “We love the Big Feed project. The exciting thing about it is that young students are getting out to the community and doing something positive.

“It is also great that students can help convey the message that actually everyone can help local people in crisis by simply buying an extra item of food.”