SURPLUS food from a supermarket is helping people in Hexham.

Aldi’s Hexham store is donating leftover food directly to the town’s addiction recovery centre Betel House and Stopgap Supported Housing, which provides supported living facilities for homeless people.

The new partnership follows a successful trial, which started in January, between the supermarket and community engagement platform, Neighbourly. Aldi has paired up its stores across Northumberland with local good causes which are now collecting surplus food up to five days a week.

Each store is donating perishable items such as fresh fruit and vegetables, long life items and baked goods.

Nationally, the supermarket chain donated two million meals to charity and aims to increase this by 50 per cent now in 2019.

Fritz Walleczek, managing director of corporate responsibility at Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “We’re always looking for new and creative ways to increase the amount of food we are able to donate.

“This partnership is enabling us to distribute even more surplus stock, while supporting a vast range of good causes, across Northumberland.

“Our aim is for fresh, healthy food to be accessible for everyone, and Neighbourly is helping us to extend this commitment beyond our affordable range of fresh products.”