Newbury flooded with porridge after 20,000 boxes donated
- Published
19,000 boxes of porridge filled the warehouse of the Newbury Weekly News (NWN)
A Berkshire town has been flooded with porridge after 20,000 packs were donated by error to a newspaper.
Newbury Weekly News (NWN) had only expected US food and drinks giant PepsiCo to donate around 1,900 boxes to the newspaper's food parcel appeal.
But the journalists were bowled over when 19,000 boxes were delivered instead, external to the newspaper's warehouse.
The surplus - even by Goldilocks' standards - has been given to foodbanks and schools in the town.
The near-ten tonnes of Quaker Oats were delivered after Pepsico mistakenly donated 1,900 boxes of ten packs leaving the newspaper with 19,000 packs for its Over 80's food parcel appeal.
Editor Andy Murrill said: "We were a bit stunned as it was unloaded and filled up our warehouse.
"We couldn't quite work out what was going on before we realised we had been delivered boxes of ten.
"So we had ten-times as many boxes as we expected. It was a lorry-full."
Thousands of surplus boxes have since been donated to foodbanks, primary schools and nursing homes helping Newbury's residents feel their oats.
Mr Murrill added: "When we realised what had happened PepsiCo offered to take the porridge back, but we thought particularly in this year an awful lot of people need the food so we tried to find as many good homes for it as possible. "
The donation came after the great-grandson of a NWN editor, who started the appeal, arranged for his employer, PepsiCo, to make the donation.
The NWN, founded in 1847, has been giving to the elderly in the run-up to Christmas since the late 1800s when it distributed a packet of tea or a tin of tobacco.