Thousands of pounds worth of food has been given to families after flooding forced an Upton supermarket to close.

Warner’s Supermarket has been closed since Saturday afternoon (October 21) because of flooding in Hanley Road.

But among the disruption, an act of kindness has put food on the tables of hundreds of families this week.

Malvern Gazette: Community Fridge volunteers and Warner's staffCommunity Fridge volunteers and Warner's staff (Image: Upton Community Fridge)

With the shop closed, Warner’s staff gathered up the fresh food they were unable to sell and packed up six vans for Upton Community Fridge.

Rev Amy Wearing, who runs the Fridge at Upton Baptist Church, said: “The Warner’s staff arrived in their wellies and brought in all these crates of food - there must be thousands of pounds worth here.”

Volunteers then had the challenge of distributing the food to those who needed it.

“We already help 100 or so people a week,” said Rev Amy, “so we put in calls to them and made sure we could meet the needs of the families for whom life’s really hard at the moment. They were prioritised.

“Then we harnessed the power of Facebook and the primary school’s text message system to let people know, plus word of mouth started to spread.

“We’ve probably seen 400 people benefit from this.

Malvern Gazette: Flooding in Hanley Road has kept Warner's closed since SaturdayFlooding in Hanley Road has kept Warner's closed since Saturday (Image: Warner's Supermarket)

“The floods are terrible but this one little thing, which is really a big thing, has brought a whole lot of joy.”

Rev Amy said Warner’s, Spar and Co-op all donate regularly to Upton Community Fridge, as to a number of Upton pubs.

“Very little goes to waste in the town,” she said. “Warner’s is really keen that this stuff doesn’t go to landfill, which is brilliant for the families of Upton.”

A spokesperson for Warner’s said: “We are so grateful to all our team who donned their wellies to get to the store and then made several trips through the flood water to deliver a huge amount of food to the Upton Community Fridge.

“The Community Fridge is such a great part of the Upton community, ensuring that food isn’t wasted and can be enjoyed by local people. Warner’s is so pleased to be able to support it.”