Readers have raised £10,000 in two months as part of a regional daily’s campaign to help struggling families on its patch over the summer holidays.

The Liverpool Echo relaunched its Share Your Lunch campaign in May with the aim of providing healthy meals for people living in poverty across Merseyside.

The campaign is run in association with social enterprise Can Cook, which campaigns against food poverty and provides up to 2,500 meals each week over the course of the holidays.

The Echo raised tens of thousands of pounds last year for the cause, and also raised £10,000 to help produce two course meals for 1,500 families on Merseyside on Christmas Day.

In a message to readers, editor Alastair Machray said: “Once again, we are enormously grateful for your fantastic generosity.

“At Christmas I said we were absolutely blown away by your kindness at an extremely busy time of year when there were so many demands on your time and money. Back then we set an ambitious target and asked a lot of you.

“Then, within a few short months and because of pressing need at another extremely difficult time of year for many parents, we asked more of you – and, again, you have responded in truly magnificent fashion.

“On behalf of all the children you will help to feed this summer, and their parents, I thank you so much.”