Heyford Park School near Bicester is collection toys and food for Christmas hampers to give out to people in need.

The initiative was started by Kerry Mellor, 41, who works at the Heyford park school.

READ MORE: How you can help light up the darkest hours of families affected by terminal illness

The teaching assistant got the idea to create gifts and food hampers last year during lockdown after she saw how it negatively affected families and decided to do it again this year.

Last year Kerry and other volunteers from the community made up around 300 hampers which they delivered out to families and households around Oxfordshire.

This year they are packing them up and delivering the Christmas hampers on the 11th and 12th of December.

“Everybody has been amazing,” Kerry said.

“People are donating gifts; I’ve got a room full of stuff at the moment.”

The hampers contain seasonal food items like chocolate, mince pies as well as toys, books, and puzzles. There are even gifts for mum and dad, Kerry said.

“All I wanted to do was to help some of these people that may have lost their job through Covid, that are really struggling or really just put a smile on people’s faces around Christmas time,” she said.

“I always look forward to Christmas but there are some people out there for whom it’s an awful ordeal and if we could do something to help that’s what we want to do.”

 

-

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.