Boxes of donated food delivered by Swindon Scrapstore have brought tears of joy to families locked down because of the coronavirus pandemic

The charity has started a doorstep delivery service to make sure the elderly and vulnerable don’t go without while government restrictions are in place.

Manager Olivia McCann, who has been with the organisation since 2001, said: “It just puts a smile on people’s faces, we’ve had some crying on their doorstep.

“It’s unbelievable the messages we get about what we’re doing. People have been thanking us for our help.”

The project is a free service and is inspired by Neighbourly’s scheme Feed It Back and works with stores and foodbanks.

Boxes are filled with tinned food, bread, noodles, pasta and other basics that have reached their best before date but are still edible.

They are then dropped off to anyone who gets in touch asking for help putting food on the table.

Olivia said: “Our donations come from Aldi’s distribution centre and Marks and Spencer. We put food in a box and then we put it on doorsteps before calling them, so we aren’t close or in contact as most are elderly.”

In the first three days of the service the small team of helpers gave out 76 boxes across Swindon.

Since then its has seen an increase in calls every day. On Monday alone it had 40 drops with only three volunteers.

Olivia told the Adver: “It’s tough because we do need the extra hands but we have to be careful about social distancing. We’re working on figuring out a system so we can take on more volunteers to reach the demand.”

Not only are they helping the elderly and vulnerable, the organisation has thought about the children off school too.

“We are providing educational packs online too for the kids who are stuck at home,” she said.

“They can work on key stage one right up to four. We started this on Saturday and we had 70 orders within 24 hours.”

These packs are on their online store ranging from £3 up to £5.

The site also features arts and crafts, stationery, toys and games to keep children busy.

For more information visit scrapstore.co.uk.