Salisbury donate in their droves to the Big Easter Appeal

The first two big donation events were held over the weekend, with collections taking place at Tesco Extra on Southampton Road and Salisbury FC's Ray Mac Stadium.

Donations came in thick and fast to the appeal which is being run in partnership between Salisbury Radio and the Salisbury Journal to help highlight the increased reliance on Foodbanks and Pantries in the area.

So far, thousands of items from the shopping list have been donated to support Salisbury Foodbank, Salisbury Pantry, Old Sarum, and Longhedge Community Pantry.

The organisations are supporting more people than ever before, and demand is increasing week by week. They need more support from the community than ever.

The items will be shared amongst these organisations, supporting communities from Downton to Durrington, Wilton to Amesbury, and Salisbury.

The Big Easter Appeal ends this week as local schools, businesses and organisations are also collecting ready for them to be collected by the Salisbury Radio team, supported by Ozweld International on Friday (22nd March).

Hundreds of shoppers at Tesco Extra purchased extra items while shopping on Saturday between 10 am and 2 pm, filling many food crates. The team at Tesco added to the collection, with the store adding £100 of food items to the very large pile of items.

Later in the Day, the team set up at the Ray Mac and received hundreds of times more as Salisbury FC and Merthyr Town supporters arrived at the game with food and cash donations, including one of the assistant referees.

There was also a bucket collection at half time with hundreds of pounds added, which will spent on adding more food items for the Big Easter Appeal.

Craig Hicks, breakfast show host and a director at Salisbury Radio, said, "We have been blown away by the support for the appeal so far. The number of donations is amazing; thank you to everyone who has donated so far.

"Thank you, too, to the volunteers who have helped make this happen and to the businesses supporting this. A big shout out to Tesco and Salisbury FC for letting us loose over the weekend and hosting the collections."

The Big Easter Appeal continues this week, with local businesses, schools, and other organisations collecting items from the shopping list that are ready to be collected on Friday.

You can still support the appeal by dropping off donations at the following locations:

Here is the shopping list of items that the foodbank and pantries are in need of: