More than 1,500 uneaten school dinners were given to charities in Bournemouth as schools closed due to the snow.

The chicken and pasta meals had already been cooked when news of Thursday's school closures came through, provider Forerunner said.

The food - which also included apple crumble and custard desserts - was shared between eight local charities.

Homeless hostel Michael House said it was "amazing".

Declan O'Toole, from Forerunner, said: "We have to wait until the schools cancel, and carry on making the meals until they decide they're not going to be in.

"We had a tonne of food which we didn't want to waste."

He said there was a "queue of organisations" wanting to take the food.

Rory Brown from Michael House in Boscombe said: "We weren't sure we were even going to get our own delivery of food today so this has really helped us out.

"It's allowed us to give lunch and dinner for 24 people - our cook was over the moon."

Read More...