MORE than 6,000 meals were donated to a winter food collection by generous supermarket customers in Inverclyde.

Shoppers at Tesco, which has stores in Greenock and Port Glasgow, handed over 6,161 long-life items to help make a difference in the community.

The contributions, added between November 27 and December 2, provided much-needed support for the work of charities FareShare and the Trussell Trust.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said: “The generosity of our customers is truly amazing.

"At a time when people are facing financial strain, they still went out of their way to support our charity partners in stores across the UK.

READ MORE: Aldi donates thousands of dinners to local people in need over the festive period

“From a single carton of long-life milk to a whole trolley of items, every customer who donated helped us to make this one of the most successful winter food collections ever.”

In addition to the donations of two million meals’ worth of long-life food items across the UK, the pre-Christmas collection saw customers donate more than £300,000 to the charities by rounding up their bills at the till and donating through a link from Tesco’s online groceries website.

Earlier this week, the Telegraph reported that Aldi - which also has shops in the two towns - paired up with local charities, community groups and food banks in the area to collect unsold fresh and chilled food when they closed their doors on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Charities that benefitted from the 5,020 dinners donated in the district include Inverclyde Homeless Forum, Inverclyde Community Development Trust and Belville Community Garden.