CREDITON is certainly looking brighter this week after many areas of the town were “yarn-bombed” with knitted fruit, vegetables and other food, as well as some knitted bunting.

The knitted items include a lollipop, fish and chips, apples, pears, bananas, strawberries, corn on the cob, a pumpkin and much more.

There was a serious message behind the yarn-bombing.  It has been created by church groups and other volunteers to highlight Crediton Foodbank and Challenge Poverty Week, which began on October 17 and runs until October 23.

Attached to some of the yarn-bombing are notices with some startling facts.

One message from Crediton Foodbank reads: “An average food parcel in 2018 cost £40 - now it is £60.  Last month, September 2022, we fed 315 people (174 adults and 141 children) from 125 parcels.  A 63 per cent increase on September 2021.”

Another message reads: “One in five people in the UK live in poverty.”

Another reads: “Increasing living costs and squeezed incomes are creating a rising tide of poverty that is threatening more and more people.”

Donations, including food items, can be taken to Crediton Foodbank, c/o The Chantry, Crediton Congregational Church.