Students at Kirk Hallam Community Academy have handed over donations and £700 to a food bank in Ilkeston.

Each form group was asked to bring in tinned food and dried goods for the collection over a five-day period.

Sixth formers then collected all the donations, packed them and delivered them to the Arena Church food bank.

The food bank was launched by the Arena Church, in partnership with the Arena Community charity, in 2010 as a result of the increasing awareness of the number of people in Ilkeston who had no food and were in need of emergency supplies.

People who are referred to the food bank from local organisations and agencies can visit the food bank centre in Belfield Street where they are given a food parcel and a hot meal.

David Cowley, Head of Sixth Form at Kirk Hallam Community Academy, said he hoped the donations would bring some festive cheer to those who needed it.

He said: “We managed to collect quite a lot of food even though we only had five days to do it and we would like to thank all of our staff, students and families who contributed.

“We hope that our donations go some way to supporting the food bank with the great work that they do in operating this extremely important service and we were more than happy to help.”

Lisa Hanson, Arena Community manager, said the food bank relied on donations from local organisations.

She said: “Donations like these are vital so that we can continue to provide our food bank service. We see about 100 people a week and our client base totals about 1,700 now.

“We see some people who have not eaten for three days and this donation from Kirk Hallam Community Academy could feed tea to up to 20 families over two months. We are extremely grateful and would like to thank everyone involved.

“There are some children out there who won’t be getting any chocolate or presents and their families won’t have anything for Christmas dinner and that’s where donations like this come in.

“Some families have to choose between eating or heating at this time of year.”

For more information about the food bank or to find out how you can help, call 01159442996 or email admin@arenachurch.co.uk