Community group The Need To Feed opened a new conservatory space last week which allows it to provide a larger supply of free food.

Vicky Lang runs the service from her home in St Athan. She began as a volunteer for the Knight's Templar, a charitable organisation distributing surplus food to other charities.

That work inspired Vicky to begin The Need To Feed and she networked with supermarkets and food retailers to collect surplus items and give them to people in the community.

Vicky's message is clear: anyone can come and collect food.

"If you feel you're struggling even if it's for a treat, not just basics, come and get it," she said.

"It's not out of the question to want to give your children some chocolate or crisps."

Previously the surplus food was stored on shelves in her hallway and The Need to Feed team would bag items into packs while wearing full PPE.

The conservatory space allows people to browse what's on offer themselves, entering one at a time to adhere to Coronavirus restrictions.

Angela Fisher has been coming to The Need To Feed for the a couple of months.

"It helps the family out all the time. If it wasn't for these guys through the lockdown, it would have been really hard," she said.

"If I can't make it one day, they'll put a bag aside for me. They help the community a lot.

"It gets me out and meeting new people as well, as normally I'm on my own when the kids are at school.

"Now we talk on Facebook if we need anybody."

The Need to Feed opens at 11.45am every weekday for people to come fill a bag of food.

Throughout lockdown the service has boomed. In the first week of the service in June, 16 families came to Vicky for help.

The next week 165 families collected food. Now The Need to Feed helps 465 families each week, with four or five new enquiries a day.

"It's a service that doesn't ask you to fill out millions of forms, or to deal with it all yourself, so we can get people out of the crisis to be able to help themselves," said Vicky.

Having people choose their items reduces the food waste and by storing food separately The Need To Feed can also meet the necessary requirements for an environmental standard mark.

"I'm a bit overwhelmed to sum it up in words," said Vicky.

"I'm very proud to announce its open, and I wouldn't have been able to it without the help of my team, friends and family.

"Every donation counts no matter how big or small. I'm so grateful."

The conservatory itself was donated by a family in Cardiff.

Vicky and her team took it down themselves to install at her home.

"Then we had a problem with the base, because it has to be a solid foundation," Vicky explained.

"I didn't even put out a call, just mentioned what I was doing to Darren, of Darren Evans Flooring, and he came round with the boys to help.

"He contributed the flooring and foundation to my conservatory in about two weeks, which could have taken ages to get done.

"Things like that help us towards becoming a constituted charity. It's amazing it's gone up that quickly, and he made a massive contribution to the page as well."

Vicky asked Darren to open the conservatory, cutting through strings which represented each barrier The Need To Feed has overcome.

Woody's Lodge, a charity that supports veterans and their families, have also worked with The Need to Feed, delivering food to veterans and emergency service workers struggling to get groceries and to cope with self-isolation.

The Need To Feed also donates white goods, furniture and financial top-ups for gas and electricity bills, while Woody's Lodge helps to deliver food and provide support.