A charity said it may have to throw away tons of food donations after its site was flooded.

The Didcot base of South Oxfordshire Food and Education Alliance (SOFEA) has temporarily closed after water came into the building on Sunday night as Storm Bert lashed the area.

The centre was discovered cut off by 'welly height' water by staff arriving on Monday morning.

At present the water is still rising and the charity anticipates being closed all week.

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The charity provides education, employability and wellbeing programmes for vulnerable young people and works to tackle food insecurity by reducing food waste.

(Image: Sofea)

Caroline Mulcahy, director of partnerships, said: “Because it hasn't drained yet we’re not sure of the extent of the damage but all the carpets will have to come up, all the sofas where we do groups with young people.

"We’ve got  a kitchen, we’re waiting to see what will still work. Any devices that were low level and cabling will be damaged."

She added: “We physically can’t get in as it’s not safe to be on site but we will probably have to throw away food donations.

"Everything that’s in the fridge that we haven’t been able to move out to groups has probably gone out of date and we will have to throw away.

“Nothing should be on the floor but we just don’t know if everything on a pallet on the first level will have to go."

The king and queen visited Sofea's distribution centre in November 2023 (Image: PA) The charity hopes to get the food deliveries back up before Christmas but is now looking for alternative sites in and around Didcot to keep its education programmes running and supporting young people.

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The surplus food distribution centre, part of FareShare, a national network of charitable food redistributors, was set up in 2014 by CEO Richard Kennell.

Since its launch it has helped more than 400 young people gain qualifications, skills and work experience while helping to transform their local communities via purpose projects such as community larders and food surplus distribution.

Last November, King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the centre to kickstart the King's Coronation Food Project, which aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food needs across the UK.

The King launched the initiative to mark his 75th birthday on November 14.

Charles was twice serenaded with Happy Birthday as he and the queen met staff and volunteers to hear about the ways food waste can be used for social good.