BROMYARD'S food bank has just received its 10,000th donation - but the need for food parcels keeps rising.

The Hereford Times reported last week on how Hereford Food Bank is in urgent need of donations after seeing a large rise in the number of people using its service since January, and the situation isn't too different in Bromyard.

Peter Cliff, who set up Bromyard's Helping Hands Project with St Peter's Church two years ago, said: "While we have seen a significant increase in the number of individuals and families helped, this has been matched by an increase in the number of donations received."

In two years the bank has delivered around 9,100 items to more than 85 individuals and families in the area.

For the first 18 months of the food bank being set up it helped 54 people, but in the last six months that has shot up to 85 people.

Peter said: "To some of the families the food parcels have made the difference between having an evening meal or not, or to having the heating or a meal on the table. Some of the homes visited have had little or no furniture, no bed, no cooker and nothing to sit on. When one lady opened her cupboards to put the food away the shelves were empty apart from a small side-plate sized cold quiche which was going to be dinner for her and her four year old daughter that night.

"Several of the people we have helped have now found full-time or part- time jobs and have themselves become donors to the project."

The Food Bank is also settling in to its new home at the HOPE Centre, where donations of foods, drinks and toiletries can be brought to.