STAFF at a Cowley primary school have boxed up food hampers worth £40 to help feed families during the closures.

At Church Cowley St James Primary School, more than a quarter of pupils are eligible for free school meals.

To make sure they do not go hungry while school is closed, staff collected food donations and arranged for families to pick them up from a safe distance in the car park last week.

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Headteacher Steve Dew said: “We have really worked hard to ensure that the free school meals money the school receives for those children is given back to them in these unprecedented times.

“We collected over £2,000 worth of lovely food from inside school, and our brilliant staff donated the rest.

“We were amazed what we had in cupboards - particularly rice and pasta! Everything that had a best before or use by before September 2020 went in. “

Every child eligible received £25 worth of Tesco vouchers before the school closed, equivalent to the funding the school receives to feed them for a fortnight.

The additional hampers are packed with £40 worth of cupboard staples, treats and fruit and vegetables, filled with donations as well as food that was already on site from the canteen, breakfast clubs, and fruit and milk for younger pupils.

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Almost 100 children will benefit from the vouchers and boxes over the next two weeks, after which the school hopes to be able to prepare food in its kitchen, when the lockdown restrictions are relaxed.

Parents have praised staff’s efforts to help families during the coronavirus closures.

Helen Hall, who has a daughter in Year 1, said: “Thank you to all of the staff for working so hard to provide a safe and familiar routine for the children at the school.

“The efforts you are going to, especially to support families who are eligible for free school meals in the event of closure, make me proud to be a parent of a child at this school.”

Mr Dew said he predicted the impact of the virus would last beyond the school closures, however.

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He explained: “In the past few days we’ve had lots of calls from anxious parents who have lost jobs, income payments or who are self employed.

“Their primary concern is without income, they worry about rental payments and food costs.

“Once this terrible virus is contained and we’re back to school, I fear that it may just be the tip of the iceberg and that the ongoing effects will be wider reaching.”

Schools have not been told how long the Covid-19 shutdown will last for, but some people doubt that they will reopen before the summer holidays.

Most, including Church Cowley, remain partially open for key workers’ children and vulnerable pupils.