Great British Bake Off Star Martha Collison, a deeply committed Christian, is helping families living in poverty.

20-year-old celebrity baker, Martha, who is famously known for being the youngest contestant on the BBC hit, Great British Bake Off back in 2014, is an ambassador for Tearfund.

Tearfund is a UK Christian relief and development agency which works in over 50 countries. 

The star took to the Big Church Day Out festival stage on Sunday and urged more than 25,000 Christians to think about what they can individually do to help break the hunger cycle in Malawi.

With more than 6.5 million people which makes up almost 40 per cent of the Malawi population, many people suffer from periodic hunger and constantly struggle to recover after two years of consecutive drought.

One Malawian mother called Sylvia Ngondo, 34, described how she struggled to feed four of her children all of her life. She has just one bag of maize left to last her family six months when it would usually last six weeks.

She said: 'It is just a matter of surviving. When there is no maize my children are crying throughout the day, looking for food.'

The charity handed out more than 1,000 bags of popcorn kernels during the West Sussex festival to demonstrate how essential items like grain can be beneficial to women like Sylvia and millions of others who are living in poverty in Malawi.

Martha spoke passionately to festival-goers about her faith and how it has helped and motivated her to help others and lift families out of poverty. Whilst demonstrating to young festival goers how she uses popcorn for recipes to demonstrate how Malawians are struggling to survive, she expressed how life-changing it has been witnessing the work Tearfund carry out.

She said: 'For me, a bag of popcorn is just a useful ingredient in a recipe, but for someone like Sylvia, a single bag of maize determines the survival of her family.

'It is sometimes extremely hard to walk in the shoes of someone who lives thousands of miles away, but having visited some of Tearfund's projects, I know just how crucial it is that the charity continues following Jesus where the need is greatest. We must act now and put an end to hunger in Malawi.'

Donald Mavunduse, Tearfund's Head of East and Southern Africa said: 'Malawi has been trapped in a hunger cycle for many years. Every time drought hits, people have fewer reserves to deal with.

'That's why we are training thousands of families in vital farming skills, helping them to make the most of the land even in such a challenging climate, and to produce enough surplus to last during day periods.'

Tearfund asked supporters to commit to giving £5 a month. Over the weekend at the Big Church Day Out, enough supporters signed up to provide farming training for 3,400 families, helping them to secure a hunger-free future.

Mavanduse was extremely thankful for those who had contributed but wanted to reiterate how important it is for people to continually invest in impacting change for someone else.

He said: 'We are hugely grateful for the generosity of festival-goers at this year's Big Church Day Out.

'However, it is very crucial that more people make a long-term investment in the future of Malawi to break the hunger cycle and help women like Sylvia to stand on their own two feet.'

For more information about how Tearfund is beating hunger in Malawi visit : http://www.tearfund.org/en/hungersteals/