Three Mansfield-based charities benefitted from the kindness of staff and students at West Notts College.

Over 12 trolleys, six baskets and 24 black bags of clothes were collected by staff and students in what has been called the ‘554 Challenge’.

The initiative was the idea of Trudi Dean from the school of academic, public services and sports studies, who championed the project throughout. She developed tutorials on the subject of homelessness and shared this with tutors and support teams who then delivered it to every group across the college.

The aim was to fill shopping trolleys with food and provisions which homeless people in the local community would be able to benefit from at The Beacon Project and the Joint Forces Alliance (JFA), Framework and The Halls Homeless Project, – a support service for services veterans.

The challenge, which is now in its fourth year, represents 5 teams, 5 trolleys, 4 the homeless, was devised by the school of learning and saw virtually every area of the college contribute something.

Once again, the challenge has been exceeded with food, toiletries and clothes spilling over into twelve shopping trolleys and eight baskets.

Last week, representatives from the charities visited the college’s Derby Road campus to collect the kind donations and thank everyone for their efforts.

Trudi Dean said: “The 554 challenge is now in its fourth year and is well established across the college. Each year the positive attitude and generosity of our students never fails to overwhelm me.

“The 554 challenge tutorial informs students about homelessness and where to get help which is really important as many are unaware that it’s an issue in our local community. Some of our students have been homeless and have benefitted from the work of these charities.”

Jason Rathbone from the JFA said: “The hard work and support will make a dramatic difference to the sustainability of our food bank and to the people in need in the local community. From all the JFA volunteers and community food bank partnership we would like to say a massive thank you to the staff and students at West Notts College.”