A vital foodbank that has seen some of its donors turn into customers in recent times of hardship has been able to remain open after facing closure this Christmas - thanks to an Amazon loophole.
Ray Barron-Woolford, 64, who co-founded We Care foodbank in Deptford, South London, along with friend Barbara Raymond, was left terrified after they were handed a staggering £33,000 energy bill for next year, which they couldn't afford.
We Care is one of few independent foodbank charities that run fridges and freezers to provide fresh fruit and healthy ready meals to its 3,000 customers - with their energy bills usually costing them £700 a year. But with no support from the Government, they were almost forced to close after seven years amid the crippling energy price hikes.
Ray, who was previously homeless before creating a successful gay estate agency in the '80s, went on the radio to talk about his fundraising appeal, which caught the attention of Gordon Brown. The former Prime Minister called those who were able to donate their £150 Council Tax rebates in order to raise some cash for the food bank.
But a group of ex-mining hobby writers took it one step further with a clever loophole for selling one of their books - Forgotten Yorkshire and Parts of North Derbyshire and Humberside - on Amazon, as first reported by Big Issue.
The book usually costs £10, but during Black Friday when the retail giant made reductions, the book, which normally sells around 50 copies a year, was one of the randomly chosen items to be heavily discounted to 99p.
Seeing as the group of friends - who go by the name of Tripe Marketing Board (TMB) - had no say in the matter, Amazon had to pay TMB its full royalties still.
So while some of the cash from Amazon's pocket went to the writer and publisher, they decided to donate £2 of it to a good cause, and started promoting the offer across social media and on the streets.
Shoppers didn't think they could go wrong with a 99p spoof book about Yorkshire's history, and were encouraged even more when they realised the proceeds would go to helping the foodbank with every purchase.
More than £10,000 was raised by collecting cash from Amazon across just two weeks, and thanks to other donations, a total of £32,000 was raised for We Care - meaning its doors can stay open for another year.
"It captured people's imaginations. Without this fundraising, we would have gone bust," Ray told the Mirror.
"Every day we worried Amazon was going to shut down the offer.
"They put a restriction on it that only three copies could be bought at one time, then we found a flaw that if you had a business account, you could buy hundreds of these books.
"So we started ordering hundreds before Amazon got wise to it. Then we delivered them to charity shops so they could then sell them to make money as well."
While countless Brits are having to choose between heating their homes and eating this winter, Ray says for his customers, the situation is even more dire.
"Thanks to this money we can stay open so we are fortunate, but our people aren't," he adds.
"People who were donating to food banks are now having to use them themselves.
"For the people we look after, it isn't an issue about eating or heating, it's about life and death.
"Without what we do, people will be giving their pets to Battersea dogs home - I've got tonnes of letters from people saying they would be killing themselves if it wasn't for what we do.
"The reason we have so many volunteers is because when you hear these stories, the trouble they are going through, we take that home with us and it's exhausting."
One of the 200 volunteers is Stewart Lendor, 52, who has special needs and has worked with Ray since the start of their operation in 2014 - making him their longest-serving volunteer.
He used to use the service and wanted to give back to the community that helped him.
"Some of the customers say about the struggles they've gone through, they find it hard," he says.
"Since Covid, we have some people who used to work 9-5, we have people that used to supply and help us with donations, now they have to be using foodbanks themselves.
"It's a big turnaround for a lot of people, especially with the gas and electric prices, a lot of people are struggling with that.
"We just try to do as best as we can.
"If we had to shut, it would have been a big struggle for them, certain people can't travel to other foodbanks, it would have been really difficult."
Customers can pay £1 to join the service, with groceries costing £5 each time.
Members need to show some paperwork that shows they are entitled to benefits, for example, and proof of address.
We Care provide toiletries as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, yoghurts and juices, pasta and pulses, and at this time of year, they provide special items for Christmas such as frozen whole chickens.
The foodbank is also mindful of those with dietary requirements and those, such as refugees living in hotels, who can only cook using a kettle.
The front of the store acts as a charity shop, with ornaments, clothing, and games, while there is a menswear and women's clothing store located downstairs.
We Care prides itself on helping anyone who needs it, with Stewart adding: "We don't turn away anyone - you could be purple, yellow, we won't turn you away, even refugees, if you've been out of work, if you can't prove it with ID we can give a certain amount of supply that could help."
But because they don't tick certain boxes, Ray says they lose out on local authority funding, which allocates money depending on who the service is helping.
He argues that the system needs to change, with a fairer allocation of the budget.
"Our ethos is that we help anyone in a crisis. We can't get funding because we don't tick one box or one group of people," he says.
"The money given to local authorities should be allocated to the charities within their boroughs by the number of people they feed.
"The funding needs to be done equally. All sorts of people are going hungry."
And despite the remarkable fundraising efforts that will see the charity through another year, he still fears for their future.
He talks of a triple threat hitting a multitude of small not-for-profit foodbanks, which is unsustainable.
"When you're feeding 3,000 families, it costs a huge amount of money," he says.
"We're being hit by huge energy bills, a small number of donations, and a shortage of food supply.
"We used to get surplus food from Fare Share, but they're not getting the disposable food they used to because the supermarkets are buying in less.
"So we are getting less and less and less but the people coming through our doors is more and more and more.
"We're having to spend more cash on getting the food, with prices going up by 50p to a pound for some items, as well as running the fridges and the two become unsustainable for most independent food banks in Britain."
To donate to the foodbank and community hub, which runs from Kath's Place, head to the crowdfunder here.
