Feed a Family This Christmas: Generous pupils from Wood End Primary School show true festive spirit
"It was a chance to show the children the real meaning of Christmas."
Those are the words of teachers at Wood End Primary School in Wednesfield where dozens of donations have been collected for the Feed A Family This Christmas appeal.
Generous staff and pupils have given the Express & Star campaign a helping hand by hosting a donation box.
Teacher Lorraine Curtiss said: "The children have been very enthusiastic. We thought it was a good chance to show the children the real meaning of Christmas."
More than 8,500 items have so far been donated to the appeal. But we still have donation boxes to collect from businesses and items to count so we expect the final figure to be much higher. It's estimated that the current total could provide in excess of 500 people with three days' worth of food.
As well as Wood End Primary, we've also received support from Westcroft School in Wolverhampton, which has collected more than 300 items.
We are distributing everything between The Well (the home of the Wolverhampton Food Bank); the Good Shepherd Ministry in Wolverhampton; the Black Country Food Bank, which has centres across Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall; Smethwick Food Bank; Walsall North Food Bank and Cannock and District Food Bank.
We've also supported The Haven in Wolverhampton by passing on children's toys and chocolate selection boxes, which have been collected at our Wolverhampton head office.
Some of the items will be used to create food parcels for people in need. Others will benefit a soup kitchen. As well as the thousands of food items donated,
we've also received small toys, children's books, knitted hats, socks, gloves and blankets.
Some people have chosen to make anonymous cash donations which have been used to buy vital supplies for the charities.
