A 15-year-old schoolgirl is to set up a food bank after landing a grant of nearly £8,000.  

Grace Jones, a pupil at Woodcote High School in Coulsdon, is to hand out emergency parcels to families in need and ask supermarkets to set up collection points.

She also hopes to encourage people to cut food waste after securing funding for her idea through a Mayor of London's Office volunteering scheme.

The teenager, who lives in Woodlands Grove with her parents and brother, said: "I saw a TV programme recently about benefits and it was saying how a lot of families are having to resort to food banks to eat even when they are employed.

"It did hit home a bit because I looked at what I have and the amount I have you don't even think about it when it is not affecting you. 

"It is only when it does affect you that you think something needs to be done, and it shouldn't need to have to get to that stage before it is recognised."

She added: "I felt it would be really nice to create a food bank in Coulsdon because although we have one locally in Croydon there is not that community in Coulsdon and I feel it would really bring people together and bring the compassion out of a lot of people."

Grace hopes to launch to food bank early next year and is to speak to supermarkets about donations of unwanted food.

The food bank will initially be funded by a grant of  €10,000, or around £7,885, from Unilever, as part of the multinational's Project Sunlight campaign aimed at reducing food waste.

Grace said: "I'd always been passionate about food waste in my own way, but had not really realised it was throughout daily life and through home.

"It's a fantastic opportunity to get my voice heard and make something of it and will really kick start actually doing something about it. 

"I would love to have it running as frequently as possible but it is going to take a lot of volunteers in the community to help it. I feel a lot of people will be willing if they can be educated on how extreme the problem is getting."

Around 3.5 million adults nationwide cannot afford to eat properly with 500,000 children going hungry, according a report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the United Kingdom yesterday.