THREE Tranent youngsters held a hugely successful door-to-door collection for East Lothian Foodbank – amassing more than 120 bags of food weighing in at 453 kilograms!

Brothers Archie, 11, and Finlay Strang, 13, and their friend Lucas Leishman, 11, handed out more than 200 letters to homes in the town’s New Row, Edinburgh Road, Market View, Polson Gardens, Bankpark Crescent and Bankpark Grove asking for donations.

The younger boys are pupils at Sanderson’s Wynd Primary School and Finlay attends Ross High School.

They were over the moon at the response of residents who left out more than 100 shopping bags full of food for them to take to Tranent Library’s drop-off point for the foodbank.

After someone posted one of the letters on social media, the boys were also inundated with requests to pick up food from other locations in Tranent and received an additional 20 bags.

This is the third year that Archie has been collecting for the foodbank.

Last year his friend Lucas got involved and Finlay joined their efforts this year.

On social media there were dozens of comments praising the actions of the three boys, who were able to collect more than double the amount of food this year than they had managed last year. Raymond Strang, dad to Archie and Finlay, said that he still had a car full of food and more bags to collect from people who had contacted him on social media.

He said: “The boys tried to thank every person personally for making their donation, with Archie saying he is really happy that people in Tranent have continued to support his foodbank appeal.

“Every time they saw someone had left out a bag they were so happy, it was like a gift to them.

“The people we met were so kind to us and Archie hoped that their efforts would help to bring some joy to those who were most in need.

“Lucas said that everyone he met whilst doing the collection was really nice and it made him really happy to know that he was helping people.

“And Finlay said that he couldn’t believe how much food was being contributed and hoped that next year they could send out more letters to cover more areas. The Tranent people are always so generous and were really kind and complimentary when we thanked them.”

Foodbank manager Peter Dicker said: “This was a tremendous effort by three young men showing the pride they have in their own community.

“It was fantastic that they managed to collect so much food for people in the county.

“Once again, East Lothian Foodbank is absolutely astounded by the generosity of people in East Lothian and Tranent in particular.”