Okehampton Foodbank received a letter of encouragement last week from a lady calling herself an OAP.

She wrote of how pleased she was to see a church serving its local community. But what moved the team most was the description of her plight.

She was worried about herself and her friends this coming winter and described a picture of little funds but increasing costs, especially when it came to gas and electric and the rising price of food. She was worried about having to make the choice between heating or eating.

Baptist Minister Darren Pike said this was 'yet another story that explains why we have undertaken to start this project.

'The problems that the foodbank will deal with are very real issues for those in our community. It's not just single parents or homeless people that suffer from food poverty it really could be our neighbour.'

Okehampton mayor Kay Bickley spoke of conversations she had with agencies and service providers over the last few weeks.

'In the last couple of weeks we have been approached three times by agencies already wanting to refer people in need to us.

'I was approached by an organisation in the town who were concerned that we had overlooked them as voucher distributors. They could see how useful the Okehampton Foodbank would be to the people they work with.'

Preparations for a launch date in October continue to go well.

Andrew Morgan who heads up food collection for the foodbank said he was greatly encouraged by the fact that local churches had committed to support the Foodbank through their harvest appeals and so had Okehampton Primary School.

He said: 'This will be a great way of stocking our warehouse once it is ready in September.'

He was also eager to point out if anyone else was having a harvest event and wanted to support the foodbank they should get in contact with him.

Also this week the team received a cheque from Okehampton Round Table to cover the cost of industrial scales needed for auditing the project.

Darren and Kay were pleased to accept the cheque as they moved a little closer to the fundraising goal.