A charity initiative set up to ensure no child went hungry this summer distributed a total of 17,705 lunches across the Blackburn with Darwen borough.

Councillor Maureen Bateson told a full council meeting last week that the Summer Lunch Scheme, which was organised by the charity, Kingdom Outreach, prepared and distributed over 150 lunches per day to children accessing Blackburn's Youth Zone.

Thousands of lunchboxes were also handed out to various other children's centres across the region.

The scheme was started to try and tackle the problem of holiday hunger in Blackburn with Darwen by making free lunches accessible to children who may not get anything to eat at home or whose parents were struggling.

Cllr Bateson said many children had benefited from the initiative and the positive feedback received will go towards shaping the scheme's future plans.