A selfless nine-year-old boy refused birthday presents and asked his friends to bring donations to his local FOODBANK instead.
Kind-hearted Toby Vogelbusch shunned the traditional showering of gifts at his party in favour of helping the needy – and was inundated with a trolley load of items.
His proud family say he came up with the idea himself after hearing about the startling shortages at the Camborne Pool and Redruth Foodbank which has had its lowest stock in years.
And this week Toby, of St Erith, Cornwall, handed over a full range of cans, pasta, cereals and other much-needed supplies to grateful foodbank co-ordinator Don Gardner at its HQ in Centenary Methodist Chapel in Camborne.
Toby’s mum Simone Kloos-Parris, 35, who has one other daughter Betty, three, said: “Everybody has been so helpful and supportive and some of the children at the party even handed over gift bags full of food.
“We’re going to help the foodbank more in the future and Toby is hoping his friends take inspiration and do the same at their parties in the future.”
Toby’s step father Josiah Parris, 39, added: “We heard about the foodbank being dangerously low on food in the local media and Toby decided that he wanted to get behind the cause and help out as the work they do in the community is brilliant.
“We’re so proud of Toby and all his friends for getting behind his idea.”
“He is a very generous boy anyway but this was especially nice.”
Camborne, Redruth and Pool foodbank goes through 80,000 tins of beans a year and usually has between 300-400 tins of beans in stock.
However, last month just three tins of beans sat on the shelf.
Don said; “We have had to cut down on what we give out.
“It’s horrible trying to say to people you can’t have any food, stock is at its lowest it has been in four years.”
Don said he thinks the main issue stock is at its lowest is because the general public see the food bank collection bins in supermarkets and schools so much that they have become dismissive of them.
“We have had families with eight or nine children and it’s very difficult to feed them,” he said.
“We would treat a child as if they need as much as a parent but we can’t do that anymore until stocks come back up.”
Don said parents coming into the foodbank have to go without food sometimes in order to feed their children.
The foodbank provides over 10,000 meals a month and six weeks ago in one hour, provided 1,200 meals for those in need.
