Woodlands Meed Teaching Assistant, Sarah Smith and her family have been busy collecting and coordinating some feel good food hamper deliveries for local families in need over the past few months.

After hearing how a Woodlands Meed family was struggling to provide treat and snack type items for their child with special needs, Sarah wanted to help out. 

‘I know how much difference a treat can make to a child with special and sensory needs and it’s really hard for some families if they find themselves unable to provide them.  Food items like wafer biscuits and crisps are often liked for their sensory texture and flavours but aren’t often included in parcels from the food bank.  I just wanted to help this family with a bag of treat items to complement the food they were receiving from the foodbank.  Not being able to enjoy an occasional treat during lockdown because of the circumstances you’re in just didn’t seem very fair ’

What started out as a kind gesture of one bag of treats has snowballed into Sarah and her family collecting and organising dozens of bags and become a community wide effort.

Food donations have been received from kind friends and neighbours who wanted to get involved to help.  Sarah has also received some generous donations so she has been able to buy what items she needs to make up a variety of bags to suit the needs of the local families they she is helping.

Head teacher at Woodlands Meed, Adam Rowland said

‘Many families have been struggling during the Coronavirus lockdown and have found themselves in difficult situations through the loss of loved ones, losing jobs, being unable to leave the house and many other reasons.  Sarah and her fellow helpers have done an amazing job in not just helping Woodlands Meed families but lots of other families in need in our local community.  Through their efforts Sarah has been able to bring a little bit of happiness to families who really appreciate it during these difficult times.’