IT’S been a winning week for the Raft Foundation Foodbank as it received an anonymous local donation of £1,500 at the same time as receiving an Awards for All grant of £10,000.

The volunteer-lead foodbank in Rossendale was last week appealing for help as they were left for 12 days without enough volunteers to meet demand.

The Lancashire Telegraph is campaigning to encourage readers to back local foodbanks, after a series of articles revealed the shocking extent of food poverty in our region.

Caroline Collins, a trustee of the Raft Foundation, said: “It’s absolutely fabulous. It’s come at just the right time for us as we’ve been busier than ever. We really want to keep going to support the needs of the community and with the help of this kind donation, we’ll be able to do that.

“We know literally nothing about the person who donated other than they are from Rossendale.

“It shows that people in the community are recognising the work we do and know we are worth supporting.”

The Awards for All money donated to the Raft Foundation is part of the Big Lottery Fund.

The foundation applied for the money to help them with the costs of running the charity, such as phone bills, petrol costs and to pay for an expansion into Rossendale Storage at Stacksteads where they hope to have a collection point available 24/7.

Foodbanks in the region have all seen a surge of demand since the beginning of the school holidays last week.

l The Blackburn foodbank is collecting at Asda in Blackburn and Darwen on Saturday from 9am to help them meet the growing demand.