British team donates Olympic equipment, food to French charities

Paris, 13 Aug  - Britain's Olympic team is donating equipment and food from the Paris Games to French charities as a thank you to the host nation.

"Our French hosts have been wonderful in extending a welcome to us and our athletes," said British Olympic Association head Hugh Robertson on Tuesday.

"....so it is an absolute pleasure that, where we can, we give something back to those communities."

King size mattresses and furniture are being passed on to communities in and around Paris through French charity 'Les Restos du Coeur'.

And all remaining food from shipments sent to France to Team GB during the Games will be given to the charity, as well as local food banks in Reims, and Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris where the Athletes' Village is located.

Donations of sports equipment are being made to Clichy, the site of Team GB's Performance Lodge, and to Saint Germain-en-Laye and Reims, where many of the British athletes prepared for the Games.