The tin man keeping Derbyshire food banks full of beans - BBC News

Say hello to The Bean Man.

Since March, Neil Potter has spent two days each week dressing up as a giant tin can.

In that time he has collected tonnes of food and thousands of pounds in cash for his local food bank in South Derbyshire.

"There are some very generous people," says Neil, who lives in Willington.

"I was outside the Co-op a month ago and some young lady pulled up in her car, got out, and handed me £100.

"I mean I was in tears, because you don't expect to get £100 handed to you."

He recalls one man giving him £50.

"Another gentleman walked into the Co-op and came out with four carrier bags of shopping," he says.

"And I thought he's going to give me a tin of beans or something, no, he said, 'that's all yours.'"

Before he started collecting for the food bank, Neil used to go around collecting litter.

"I'm retired and I needed something to do," he said. "And the villagers were so generous that they bought me a trolley."

However, Neil quickly discovered the trolley was too heavy to push around while collecting litter, so he decided to put it to another use.

"I thought I've got this trolley that the villagers have given me and it's sat there doing nothing," he said.

"So I got a few posters made up, stuck them on the side, and went round collecting for the food bank inside the trolley, and it just grew from that."

Neil was also partly inspired, unusually, by the TV horror series Red Rose.

In the programme, one of the characters is blackmailed with footage of her visiting a food bank.

"There was a young girl who had to go to a food bank and she was so upset and embarrassed about the fact she had to go to a food bank, and I thought let's do what we can for these people," says Neil.

He decided to dress as an item of food in order to draw attention, and therefore get more donations.

"The bean can was the only costume I could get that represented the food bank really," he says.

He is not sponsored by Heinz in any way, and the BBC would like to point out that other brands of baked beans are available.

His idea seems to be working, based on the amount of donations he receives.

"I thought I'd be lucky if I could fill a tray or something and at least it would be something, but no, people are just so generous, they really are," he says.

"By the end of the two days I've usually got at least 12 trays of food, and money-wise it's usually about £100 over the two days, maybe a little more."

And following the success of The Bean Man, Neil now also has another alter ego - Captain Rooster.

"That's really for the kids because they love that kind of thing," he says.

"They pester their parents until they put something in there, so it works well at the moment."

The Bean Man and Captain Rooster can be found in various locations in the South Derbyshire area, including Etwall, Findern, Hatton, Hilton, Melbourne and Willington.

They usually collect on Fridays and Saturdays and all of the food and money raised goes to South Derbyshire CVS.

Petra Parker, the charity's food hub officer, said: "Neil's help and support has made an amazing difference to our food bank. His actions have not only raised over £2,000 to date, but also raised vital awareness of food poverty locally.

"Neil and his wife Mary truly care about the community and go out of their way to support our foodbank with great humour, but also great sensitivity.

"Last year our food bank provided over 24,000 meals to people in need, and without people like Neil and Mary, we simply wouldn't be able to support as many people as we do."

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