A NOVEL scheme which sees food supplies which would otherwise be thrown away made available to anyone needing them has proved a huge success.

Under the new scheme, volunteers transport unsold fresh food from the Morrison's store in Kendal and, after flagging up the service on social media, distribute it to grateful residents of the Sandylands area via a 'pop-up' shop.

"It's providing a great service and the people who use it really benefit, " said Sandylands Residents' Association chair Cllr Adam Edwards, who has been at the forefront of organising the scheme.

"The community came together so well after Storm Desmond and this scheme continues that great community spirit."

The idea came from the People's Cafe charity project in Kendal, which began operating in March, 2017.

The cafe accepts food from various retail outlets in the town and uses it to provide cheap meals via a pop-up cafe which currently runs every Saturday.

But after word of the operation spread, the cafe began receiving far more food than they could cope with, and a plan was hatched to utilise this surplus food.

The Association established a link with the supermarket Morrison's, who were one of the main contributors, and arranged for volunteers to use their car boots to transport the food to the Sandylands area.

The move proved a great success as residents arrived at the prearranged 'pop-up' location to collect the food, predominantly fruit, bread and vegetables, which while not out of date, has reached the end of its shelf life but could not be sent to food banks as it was perishable.

"All the food is generally taken, and we have noted that the people who take it have a genuine need and are not just picking it up because it's free," said Cllr Edwards, who thanked the Morrisons Community Champions team for their work in helping the scheme's operation.

Cllr Edwards added that the scheme had seen Morrisons cut the amount of stock they destroyed by up to 90 per cent, and therefore there was also a positive environmental aspect.

A similar scheme is also now operating in the Kirkbarrow area and other community associations have expressed an interest.

And the operation has proved so successful the team are now also supplying household goods such as toothpaste which would otherwise be destroyed.

"We want to ensure anything that can benefit our community or town which otherwise is returned to a warehouse for storage or destroyed or wasted is given a chance for someone who needs it to use it," said Cllr Edwards.

And he said plans were afoot to introduce a companion scheme in which school uniforms and other school equipment will be collected from families who no longer need them and redistributed to other families who are unable to afford the high cost of such items.