On a freezing dark Thursday evening, 10 GoodGym runners braved the icy aisles of a city centre Tesco to help collect food for the Merseyside branch of FareShare - the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.

Dressed in fetching tabards (in GoodGym red, of course) and festive woolly hat (Jo) , we handed out FareShare's shopping lists to Tesco customers, many of whom were just popping in to pick up their dinner or the odd bar of chocolate.

Despite that, a lot of them were going around the store studying the list and some even came to ask us to check they got the right things.

All of us were overwhelmed at the amount people donated especially the number of customers handing over bags and baskets full of food donations. We even had someone donate a multipack of Budweiser! (which we immediately refunded and swapped for tea and tinned fish!)

We were so inspired by the generosity we saw, that at the end of our shifts, many of us also filled our baskets to add to the collection.

After 3 hours, we had collected hundreds of tins, tens of kilos of pasta and probably enough baked beans to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

In more real terms, we filled 2.5 caged trolleys full of food which FareShare will distribute to local charities and organisations to support those in need.