PEOPLE in Minehead have been getting into the Christmas spirit by giving generously to boost the boxes of food collected by a two-man team for the West Somerset Food Cupboard.

Hair salon owner Dan James and friend Chris Jones collected hundreds of items from Minehead and Alcombe over two days last week, after leafleting 3,000 homes to give advance notice that they were coming.

“It went very well,” said Dan. “There was a fantastic response.

“It just shows what a great community we live in and how much people want to help others.”

The two men worked from 8.30am until 7.30pm last Wednesday and 8.30am to 4pm on Saturday, walking up and down roads to collect parcels ranging from single tins to bagfuls of non-perishable food.

They loaded the goods into their truck and temporarily stored everything all at the Old Hospital before taking it to both the Food Cupboard in Alcombe and the Talking Café at the Beach Hotel for village agents to distribute.

The two men made a similar collection for the first time last year and Dan said:

“I think there’s lots more food this year than last, and next year we hope it will be even bigger and better.”