The Trussell Trust’s Easter Appeal raised more than £50,000 in two days after a backlash on social media to a Mail on Sunday article criticising the charity.

A reporter for the Mail on Sunday had obtained food vouchers from Nottingham Citizens Advice Bureau by claiming to be unemployed as part of an investigation into abuse of the foodbank system.

But Twitter users, including the author Mark Haddon, angry at the newspapers tactics started donating to the Trussell Trust’s Help Crack UK Hunger campaign’s JustGiving page.

The fundraising total currently stands at £57,150 from 4,777 individuals. Before the Mail on Sunday’s piece was published the total had been around £2,000.

In a statement the charity said it was “totally overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people” and thanked everyone who had given on Twitter.

Many donors cited the Mail on Sunday’s article as a reason for donating and were also donating more than the charity’s ask of “the cost of an Easter egg”. The charity said the appeal was to “help the Trussell Trust launch more foodbanks”. The JustGiving page did not specify a fundraising target.

Last year the Trussell Trust’s income was £1,884,086 with £783,000 from voluntary sources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week the charity revealed that the number of people using its foodbanks had tripled in one year. These figures were condemned as "misleading" by a senior Whitehall source and former Conservative minster Edwina Currie wrote a comment piece for The Sun criticising foodbanks. A number of Labour MPs stepped in to defend the Trussell Trust including Tom Watson and Andy Slaughter.