Bournemouth woman turns garden into Christmas Eve food bank

Husband and wife Sharon and Phil Valler will be running the Christmas food bank for the third year

A woman says she is expecting "obscene amounts" of surplus supermarket food to be on offer as she turns her garden into a food bank on Christmas Eve.

It will be the third year Sharon Valler has offered free festive offerings from her Bournemouth home.

The 48-year-old, who runs Bournemouth Recycle, said she wanted to "put an end to waste" and help people struggling with the cost of living crisis.

She operates the informal food bank on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Mrs Valler, who usually collects surplus food at the end of the day, said she was expecting deliveries from up to seven supermarkets on Saturday evening.

"It's a well-oiled machine after two years. I say food's on the way on social media and I distribute it from my house," she said.

Crates of fruit and veg arrived at Mrs Valler's home from supermarkets last year

"Last year we received 100 turkeys from one supermarket alone, it's an obscene amount of food."

But she stressed there was no predicting what she would receive this time.

Any tins or packets of food are pulled aside and made up into hampers for NHS staff.

"I had one lady, an NHS worker, on my doorstep in tears. She said her wages come in and over half goes out in rent.

"There's a massive, massive pool of working people who aren't earning enough to get by," Mrs Valler said.

On a normal night she says she may get about 50 people queuing for food, but on Christmas Eve she is expecting closer to 100.