The director of Kingston Foodbank paid tribute to the "amazing" volunteers after being awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list.

Paul Pickhaver was given the honour "for services to the foodbank and to the community in Kingston".

He said: "It is an incredible honour to have our work acknowledged in this way. It recognises not just what I have done, but what our amazing army of volunteers and supporters have done to help local people in crisis, working in partnership with more than 200 front line services."

Since the foodbank was launched in 2011, it has distributed more than 31,000 food parcels.

In 2017/18 it received and distributed 28 tonnes of food, supporting 4,741 people from the area.

Mr Pickhaver said: "There remains a need for a foodbank in Kingston.

"We continue to see people struggling when benefit payments are interrupted, the crisis of homelessness, the gap in income when a person moves from welfare to work and increasingly the challenges of low income jobs on zero hours contracts.

"We know that the introduction of Universal Credit in Kingston this month for new claimants will leave some people with no money for five weeks, so we are talking to other agencies about how we will support people in that process."

Kingston Foodbank is currently in urgent need of long-life milk, instant mashed potato, custard and sponge puddings, and still needs some biscuits, rice pudding, fruit squash and tinned spaghetti.

You can donate at Waitrose in Wood Street, Worcester Park, New Malden and Surbiton; Sainsburys in Chessington; and Big Yellow Self Storage in Tolworth.

Mr Pickhaver said: "The support we give is only possible because of the incredible generosity of the people and businesses in Kingston, who with us see the needs and respond giving food, funds and time.

"You can find ways to support Kingston Foodbank at kingston.foodbank.org.uk."