PUPILS from a Spennymoor school have been praised for helping to replenish foodbank stocksthis winter.

A group of eight students worked ‘virtually’ with housing organisation Livin to create a flyer to encourage food donations and came up with a competition to increase donations from their own ‘house groups’.

Five new household wheelie bins, provided by Durham County Council, were filled with food donated by friends of Whitworth Park Academy totalling over 2,500 items.

Livin employees and partner Mears also joined in by raising £1,500 in donations for six local foodbanks to replenish their supply of essentials.

Alan Boddy, executive director of housing and operations, said: “We are delighted to have been able to work with Whitworth Park Academy for a second year. The current environment presented some challenges as we could not work with the students face-to-face, we managed to overcome this and together we have helped the students to really make a difference to local people.”

Headteacher David Stone said: "I am extremely proud of both the effort and enthusiasm that the students involved in the project have demonstrated. This project has had an enormously positive impact on our young people. As always, my thanks goes to Livin for the continued efforts in helping us support those most in need in our local community."