It’s often at the end of a supermarket experience, when you’ve paid for a trolley full of food, that you notice the boxes asking people to donate surplus items to foodbanks. And more times than not, it’s too late to go back and buy extra: the queues are massive and your patience has worn thin.

When a group of teens from Exeter noticed this, they came up with a fresh take on encouraging people to give back, which involved designing a set of on-shelf labels to highlight priority products for donation to foodbanks – non-perishable items like tins, pasta and tea. 

After pitching the idea to a Sainsbury’s store manager in Exeter, the labels were added in store and donations tripled as a result. Now the scheme is being rolled out across all UK stores, in a bid to help “brighten a million Christmases”.

This comes as UK’s leading foodbank provider said the number of Britons relying on foodbanks is set to reach record levels this Christmas, fuelled largely by continuing problems with the rollout of Universal Credit (UC).

Last December, the Trussell Trust saw a 49 per cent increase in the number of three-day emergency packs distributed compared to the monthly average and the charity expects an even larger rise this year.

[Read More: Universal Credit Set To Make Foodbank Usage Reach Record Levels This Christmas]

The new foodbank labelling system was designed by a group of 13 teenagers, aged between 16 and 17 years old, who worked with the National Citizen Service (NCS) to implement the campaign locally.

Mark Richardson, manager of Exeter foodbank, said: “Teenagers these days often have an unfair reputation for being unengaged with the world around them, so it’s great to see young people being empowered by programmes like NCS to go out into their communities and make a difference. 

“The results of this initiative just goes to show that sometimes you just need a new mind on an old problem, sometimes the most simple ideas have the greatest impact.”

As Sainsbury’s food donation scheme runs year-round, the labels will be a permanent fixture – not just for Christmas.

Argos is also getting involved with the campaign, encouraging toy donations rather than food, and customers will be able to donate new toys (for kids aged 0-16 yearsold) in store until 16 December.

Paul Adnitt, curriculum manager at NCS Trust, said: “We couldn’t be more proud of this group of young people for the impact they’ve already made in their local community, and the even bigger impact their idea is set to have across the country.”