A COLLABORATION with a charity and supermarket, is benefiting members of a Flintshire community.

People in Deeside are receiving free supplies from Tesco stores thanks to the work of the Community Hands charity.

The charity provides free surplus food from stores and makes it available to people in Deeside, ensuring families don't go without.

Community Hands receives food as part of Community Food Connection, run in partnership with FareShare.

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Community Food Connection ensures surplus food from Tesco is given to charities and community groups, whose volunteer members then distribute it to the public. Across the UK it redistributes more than two million meals each month.

Arwel Evans, a trustee at Community Hands, said: "We are immensely grateful to Tesco and FareShare for their generous support through the Community Food Connection surplus food scheme.

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"This generous addition enables Community Hands to continue our mission of supporting individuals affected by homelessness in the Flintshire and Chester areas. With the help of Tesco's local stores and FareShare's food surplus redistribution, we can continue to provide essential services such as food for hot meals and food packages to people experiencing homelessness and families struggling on low incomes.

"The ongoing help from our community makes all of this possible, and we deeply appreciate Tesco and FareShare's contribution, which allows us to continue our work in supporting the people of Deeside."

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Claire De Silva, Tesco head of community, said: "Working with community groups such as Community Hands to help them get the food they need is such an important service for us to be able to provide. The dedication they have to their community is amazing, and we are pleased to do what we can to support.

"We firmly believe no good food should go to waste, which is why we began our Community Food Connection scheme. It enables us to ensure our surplus food is put to good use in communities."

FareShare is the UK's biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste. Two-thirds of the organisations it provides food to support children and families.

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Katie Sadler, head of FareShare Go, said: "The food that Tesco redistributes through FareShare makes a huge difference to people facing food insecurity and the most vulnerable across the UK.

"We work with thousands of charities and community groups providing essential support to their communities, and receiving a steady stream of food helps them to feed the people who need it most."

• Charities and community groups that could benefit from the support of the Community Food Connection scheme can find further information at fareshare.org.uk/getting-food