CARLISLE Foodbank has stepped up its appeal for donations with a new electronic billboard. 

In an attempt to encourage locals to donate to the charity that provides emergency food aid to people in the community, Carlisle Foodbank has created an electronic appeal that is visible to the public on Church Street.

Carlisle Foodbank manager Steph Hulmes came up with the idea when she was sitting in traffic on the busy Carlisle street and explained what that charity is hoping will come from the new billboard. 

"I was sitting in traffic, I go that way to work and I thought wouldn't that be a really good idea," She said.

"It is all about raising awareness and putting that seed in people's brains and making them think, even if they have only got 50p to spare let's give that to the community, let's give that to the foodbank.

"We don't expect people to give a lot but any little does help."

"We are very very busy and we honestly just need all the help we can get.

The electronic appeal comes at a time when the food bank is 'very busy' as it works to support locals and families, especially during the summer holidays, and Steph spoke about how she is not expecting the demand on the foodbank to go down once the new school year begins 

She said: "At the minute we are not going to be any less busy and we wish we were, we just need all the donations to help us tick along. 

"We have got an app that we use to help drive donations, it's called BankTheFood, it is a free app and we just need all the donations we can get.

"We need tinned long-life items, things like tomatoes, tinned puddings, and pasta sauce, we just need absolutely everything."