Supermarket giant Aldi donated more than 60,000 meals to charities across the South West on Christmas Eve.

Staff spread festive cheer by visiting 38 charities in the region, including many in Dorset, with food amounting to a massive 60,192 meals.

Aldi linked its 500 stores across the UK with local charities and food banks to make the most of quality unsold fresh food after stores closed on December 24. Around 798,744 meals were donated across the country and more than 500 UK charities benefitted from the initiative in total.

Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility, said: “By donating fresh food such as bread, fruit and vegetables and meat we’ve been able to support charities in providing warm and healthy festive meals this Christmas season.

“The feedback has been overwhelming and we’re delighted that we’ve been able to go above and beyond with our donations this year, and reach so many people in and across the South West.”

The initiative is an extension of Aldi’s existing food donations partnerships which operate all year round.

The supermarket works directly with FareShare and Company Shop throughout the year and has also pledged to reduce operational food waste by 50 per cent by 2030 as part of the Friends of Champions network.

Last week supermarket giant Tesco also revealed how generous shoppers at its Dorset stores had donated food at its shops across the county.

As a result, 27,567 meals were given to charities FareShare and The Trussell Trust between November 29 and December 1.

Customers were asked to donate long-life items to help people in need as part of their usual shop.

FareShare is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste, while The Trussell Trust runs a network of food banks.

Food banks in south and west Dorset said they had never been so busy as in the run up to Christmas as more families struggled with many blaming problems with the roll-out of Universal Credit.