BOSSES at a top bank have pledged to boost supplies at Southampton's Basics Bank by matching tin for tin any food collected by their staff.

More than 50 staff at Barclays Bank's Ocean Village office are to take part in the Daily Echo's Back to Basics appeal to make a difference this Easter to Hampshire's poorest people.

Vanessa Snellgrove, business development manager, said: "This gives us the ideal opportunity to put something back into the community. The Basics Bank is really local to Southampton and appealed to us because of the way it's organised."

We are urging more businesses, churches and community groups to donate vital supplies as the month-long appeal draws to an end.

Basics banks across Hampshire urgently need tins of meat, breakfast cereals, tea and coffee - and if every Daily Echo reader donated just one item, more than 7,000 people could be supplied with meal packages this year.

Drop off food at Echo offices in Southampton or Eastleigh; the Swan Centre, Eastleigh; the Bargate shopping centre in Southampton; Lymington United Reformed Church, Lymington High Street; the Oasis Christian Centre in Church Street, Romsey; City Church in Jewry Street, Winchester, or Southampton's Basics Bank in Millbank Street, Northam.

Call 023 8077 3132 for more information.