BEANS, BEEF AND BISCUITS TO HELP BEAT THE HUNGER

EACH Mail Force food box is crammed with enough items to feed one person for a week.

Nutritionists have been consulted to ensure the boxes include the right mix of ingredients required to provide healthy meals for refugees forced to flee their homes. Weighing eight kilograms, the 14 items in each box will provide around 12,000 calories, or 1,700 calories per day.

Sally Henry, project manager for the food box programme said: ‘Sourcing the food was extremely challenging: we needed huge volumes fast, of suitable long-life goods that met all the right food and nutrition standards and would fit into the boxes.’

Much of the food is non-perishable and the boxes have been designed to be light enough to carry should refugees need to flee to bomb shelters during air strikes or missile attacks.

The boxes are 40cm long and 21cm high, and a typical one includes tins of tuna and salmon, along with a tin of hot dogs and a tin of either ham or corned beef.

Tins of red kidney beans and chickpeas provide crucial nutrition, as does a bottle of tomato passata, which can be used to provide a base for a healthy cooking sauce. The boxes also include two packs of tortilla wraps – much easier to transport and longer-lasting than bread – along with a one kilogram pack of Morrisons porridge and a tin of Branston baked beans. A pack of spaghetti and a pack of rice will boost the amount of carbohydrates, while a pack of digestives, or orange and chocolate creams, will give a sugar boost.

The composition of the food boxes has been carefully scrutinised by the Ukrainian embassy in London to ensure that they reflect Ukrainian tastes. Tinned peas were dropped because they are rarely eaten in Ukraine and Marmite is also off the menu.

Single person boxes were chosen after an earlier trial of 10,000 21kg parcels funded by the Ukrainian government, which could feed three people, were found to be too heavy for refugees to carry in an emergency.