PEOPLE in need will receive gifts of food this Christmas ... thanks to the kind-hearted residents of Worcester.

Every year the Rotary Clubs of Worcester deliver Christmas parcels to the underprivileged people in the area. The project is supported by the Worcester News. At the beginning of this month Rotarians sent out 6,000 bags to homes in the city. When the bags were collected on Sunday, December 9, 75 per cent of them had been filled with tins of food and packets of biscuits.

John Bowley, Worcester Wychavon RC president, said: "The people are so grateful and some of them really are in need. When you go there and see their faces when you give them the parcels it is wonderful. It's a wonderful feeling."

The gifts will now be made into parcels and handed out to disadvantaged people living in Worcester. Anything left over will be donated to organisations, including the Maggs Day Centre in Deansway and St Paul's Hostel, Tallow Hill.