MEMBERS of Tavistock Lions Club and the organisers of Operation Sunshine this week said they were 'over the moon' with the public's most generous response to their recent appeal for donations of rice.

The collection took place at Morrisons over a recent weekend and it was so successful that the store ran out of their value rice packets by mid Sunday afternoon — despite having brought in substantial supplies for the appeal weekend.

The rice will be sent out to the impoverished families and orphaned children in Zimbabwe.

In all, almost 2,000 kilo bags were collected, including 96 donated by Morrisons themselves plus 201 tins of tuna and 65 tins of corned beef which were purchased after the rice ran out.

A spokesman for the Lions said: 'Cash donations amounted to £341, which will help with buying the container and the cost of shipping it to Zimbabwe, where it will be collected by Operation Sunshine's partners, thus ensuring that it reaches the correct destination.

'The next container is due out from Tavistock on Saturday, February 19 and will be packed by the Operation Sunshine volunteers and Lions with the donated food and other items such as clothing, shoes, materials, medical supplies, tools, bicycles etc. which are all so desperately needed in Zimbabwe.'

Ann Tregarthen of Operation Sunshine said: 'I can't tell you how thrilled we were with the collection. We really appreciate peoples' generosity — and the Lions and Morrisons.

'It was an amazing weekend.

'I've been out there and it's still difficult to comprehend how children can survive on just a mug of meal a day.

'We just want to thank people so much.'

 The Lions Club and Operation Sunshine would like to thank everybody that made a donation and also the management and staff at Morrisons without whose able assistance over the weekend and generosity, the appeal would not have been so successful.