A massive clean-up operation was under way after a charity had to throw away tons of food when its site was flooded.

South Oxfordshire Food and Education Alliance (SOFEA) had to close its site at Trident Business Park in Didcot as Storm Bert lashed the area at the weekend.

The charity provides education, employability and wellbeing programmes for vulnerable young people and works to tackle food insecurity by reducing food waste.

Caroline Mulcahy Director of Partnerships said: “Water started to come in we think on Sunday night. Staff came in and discovered it on Monday morning.

“It was welly height, you couldn't walk around.

“Everything on the floor was damaged. All the carpets will have to come up, all the sofas. We’ve got a kitchen, we’re waiting to see what will still work.

The site at Trident Business Park was left under nearly two feet of water (Image: Sofea) “Any devices that were low level and cabling will be damaged.

“We physically couldn't get in as it’s not safe to be on site. Everything that’s in the fridge that we haven’t been able to move out to groups has probably will have to throw away.

“Nothing should be on the floor but anything on a pallet, we just don’t know if everything on a pallet on the first level will have to go.

“We’re just not sure how the fridges are insulated and has it all leaked up into the insulation ie are the fridges going to have to go or if it’s just a clean up job."

The surplus food distribution centre, part of FareShare, a national network of charitable food redistributors, was set up in 2014 by CEO Richard Kennell.

Last November, King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the centre to kickstart the King's Coronation Food Project, which aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food needs across the UK.

The King launched the initiative to mark his 75th birthday on November 14.

Charles was twice serenaded with Happy Birthday as he and the queen met staff and volunteers to hear about the ways food waste can be used for social good.

In an update at the end of the week Mr Kennell said a massive clear up was underway.

“The clean up operation in the warehouse is going really, really well," he said. "We’ve had to dispose of some tons of food because it was contaminated by the water but we salvaged the majority.

"The environmental health officer has given us good advice and we’re following that.

“The floor is now clean and being dried out. We are going to lose our huge industrial chillers and freezer units because the floodwater can cause mould.

"However, we’re hoping to be operational again with the food on Monday."

A major clean up operation got under way on Tuesday (Image: Sofea) But he added: “Our educational space has been damaged more severely and the programmes we run there will probably not restart there until after Christmas.

“I am actually standing in Didcot Civic Hall where we’ve relocated and it all looks calm and peaceful and they all look like they’re getting on with what they should be."

Mr Kennell said there was little they could have done to prepare for such an unprecedented amount of rain.

He said: “Sandbags wouldn’t have helped at the weekend, it was a lot of water. But obviously we will making contingency plans should it happen again.

“As an organisation we’re pretty resilient. We’ve been through crises over the years we’ll be back bigger and better than we were before but it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

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