A home delivery foodbank which has helped hundreds of families in Ipswich is relaunching as a walk-in service.

The community pantry, based at Castle Hill Community Centre, was launched in April last year, during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Now, with the easing of coronavirus restrictions, it has been decided to change the approach, opening the doors of the centre and moving to a weekly walk-in service, starting from Tuesday, June 8.

People living in Whitton, Whitehouse or Castle Hill who feel this would help them can go along and make a personal choice of the items they need.

There will be no charge for the service while funds last, and bags will be supplied for people visiting the foodbank to use.

The service, known as Community Pantry @ Castle Hill Community Centre, has been supported by many organisations over the past year, including North West Ipswich Big Local Trust, Suffolk County Council, Fare Share and supermarkets Asda and Morrisons.

It has also relied on weekly donations from local residents - and last September it received an £8,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.

This enabled it to keep going, together with funding from council locality budgets and Ipswich Borough Council's area committee.

If you need the pantry's help, you can go along on a Tuesday, from June 8 onwards, between 10am and 11.30am, call 01473 747053 or email chbookings@outlook.com