A PROJECT which helps feed people in need across West Somerset saw a massive surge in the demand for its services in the run-up to Christmas.

The West Somerset Food Cupboard handed out a total of 257 festive food parcels to families and individuals - almost 100 more than at the same time last year.

In 2012 the project, which was set up six years ago, handed out 563 parcels - but the 2013 total has virtually doubled, standing at 1,100.

And organisers fear the need will continue to spiral as local people struggle to meet rising living costs.

"We have already had requests for nine food parcels since Christmas," project co-ordinator Christine Payne said.

"We are seeing so much more in-work poverty - people who have jobs but are low paid and just can't make ends meet."

Volunteers pulled out all the stops to make the Christmas parcels extra special, with a range of festive fare included in addition to the everyday staple foods.

Boxes were decorated with ribbons and tinsel and also contained some handed knitted or home-baked extras.

But Mrs Payne said "huge thanks" had to go to the West Somerset community, which had gone that extra mile to donate the food needed.

"People gave so generously and selflessly to our Christmas appeal - the amount donated was absolutely staggering."

Mrs Payne said special thanks were due to so many people, including supermarket chain Morrisons which allowed collections at its Minehead store during December, resulting in ten trolley-loads of food being donated.

Village shops in Wheddon Cross, Winsford, Exford, Withypool, Wootton Courtenay, Kilve and Carhampton also acted as collection points and helped fill the food cupboard even further.

"Various organisations and places of work, too many to mention by name, also collected contributions of food and there was a steady stream of people arriving daily at our base at St Michael's Church in Alcombe bearing gifts so that others should not go without," said Mrs Payne.

She also wishes to thank Steve Emmerson, an assistant at Minehead's Iceland store who got the approval of his manager Nathan Harris to run a two-week collection, encouraging customers to buy an extra item of food to donate.

"I lost count of the number of carrier bags full of food that I collected right up to and including Boxing Day - it was phenomenal.

"We have also been lucky enough to receive a number of cheques and cash donations, resulting from raffles and various activities and individual giving, which means that we have good resources to draw on through the year when our stocks are low."

Mrs Payne paid tribute to the "wonderful" volunteers who had given up their time to make up the food parcels, decorate the boxes, deliver them and help identify the need.

"The past few weeks have been a real emotional roller coaster.

"It is so humbling to witness the generosity of others, particularly those who have little enough for themselves but who want to share what they have with those who have nothing."

Mrs Payne said it was heart-wrenching to learn of the plight faced by so many of the people the project supported.

"There was the lady who, on receiving her food parcel, could now afford to buy a sack of logs because she had been trying to decide whether to buy something to eat or heat her home.

"And there was also the young family who had suffered the shock and upheaval of a house fire earlier in the year followed by the trauma of the breadwinner suffering a stroke - for them the food parcels were a lifeline.

"From the mentally sick, to the homeless, to the lonely, the recently bereaved or the elderly - each had a story to tell and each of their lives was made that little bit better by the arrival of a food parcel."

Mrs Payne said project organisers had already received some very touching thank you notes from those who had benefited.

"But the thanks should go out to the people of West Somerset who this Christmas through their acts of kindness brought hope, love and care to so many who thought they had been forgotten.

"This is truly charity beginning at home, this is West Somerset people helping other West Somerset people and I am so grateful to all of them."