Can you help a hungry Rotherham family this Christmas?

The number of people in the town who are struggling to pay for food is growing, say charities who this week launced an appeal for donations of food.

The appeal is being organised by Voluntary Action Rotherhaml on behalf of the Rotherham Food for People in Crisis Partnership, which represents 12 organisations offering food parcels or hot meals to people with nowhere else to go.

More than 30 Rotherham families are given food parcels once a week, while homelessness charity Shiloh provides hot meals for 70 people three times a week. VAR fears the numbers will rise next year as benefit cuts bite.

Nikky Wilson, from VAR, said: “It’s a sad reflection of reality that every day in Rotherham there are people struggling to find the money to buy food.

“As the economic situation gets worse, it’s not only unemployed or homeless people who find themselves in this terrible situation.”

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The Food for People in Crisis Partnership has placed boxes around the borough for donations, while Rotherham United and the town’s Chamber of Commerce are asking fans and businesses respectively to chip in.

And the Advertiser has placed a box in its Wellgate office You can make a donation by dropping into the office any time between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

GROWING NIGHTMARE OF ROTHERHAM'S HUNGRY FAMIILIES . . . See this week's Advertiser.