PUPILS at a Popley secondary school have joined together to collect nearly 150kg of donations for Basingstoke Food Bank.

Everest Community Academy, on Oxford Way, ran a House competition, encouraging pupils, parents and the wider school community to collect as many non-perishable food items as possible throughout the first half of the school term.

Together, they were able to gather 147.10kg of food, which will equal 350 meals for those in need.

The competition was organised by the student leadership team, known as Everest Pupils Inspirational Committee (EPIC), who work closely with members of staff to discuss ideas for enhancing student experience.

An EPIC team student representative said: "As a community we think that it is important to give to the less fortunate because we don’t want other people in our community to suffer and have to worry about things that everyone should have.

"This amount of food and meals can help so many unfortunate families to eat.

"As this was an Everest House Competition, the EPIC team would like to say well done to all students for donating the food, but in particular a huge well done to those in Scott House for donating the most food and winning the competition."

Basingstoke Foodbank, which is part of a UK-wide network supported by The Trussel Trust, sent a thank you certificate to the student body.

The foodbank provides three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis, in their effort to ensure nobody in the area goes hungry.