A FUN festival supported by staff at a Hartlebury depot has a serious purpose - to fight hunger in Africa.

Express delivery giant TNT, which has a depot on the Hartlebury Trading Estate, started a week of fund-raising activities yesterday.

The activities include fancy dress, chest waxing and placing senior managers in the stocks. The week-long bonanza aims to raise awareness of the need to fight global hunger and tens of thousands of pounds for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP).

More than 60 TNT Express Services depots, customer contact centres and offices nationwide will be involved in Fight Hunger Week. The initiative is part of an ongoing partnership that has already seen TNT in the UK generate £250,000 for the WFP, helping feed and educate thousands of children in Africa.

Adrian Avery, general manager at the depot, said all the funds raised in the UK will go to the WFP's school feeding programme in Tanzania.

The TNT Fight Hunger Week started yesterday with a spectacular WFP Walk The World event in London, starting at the South Bank of the river Thames at 11am.