Fear of friends going hungry is driving young Maisy
AN Aldershot mum has said she is “really, really proud” of her fiveyear-old daughter after she spent her Christmas money to create food boxes to help vulnerable people.
Lucy Youd and her daughter Maisy-Aurora have spent the past few days making up the food boxes after the little girl became concerned her friends could be going hungry.
Lucy said: “I was talking with a friend about the debate going round about free school meals and people weren’t getting enough, and Maisy asked what we were talking about.
“So I explained that some people can’t go out because they’re vulnerable or they can’t afford food, and so some people are going hungry.
“She started panicking because she thought her friends would be going hungry, so she disappeared and came back with her envelope of Christmas money and she said ‘mummy I want to go and get food for my friends, you were talking about people not getting enough and I want to buy it for them’.
“I just started crying, she is only five and I didn’t think she’d understand the concept of it. I was really taken aback by how generous she was being.”
What followed was a trip to Lidl, Maisy’s favourite supermarket, to buy enough food for four boxes.
Lucy said: “She picked out a lot of stuff, she was asking me what would be good but I asked her what she thought her friends would like.”
Included in the boxes were pasta and rice, plus some of Maisy’s favourites including chocolate and Pain au chocolat.
To help find people to donate the food to, Lucy emailed Maisy’s school and posted on a local Facebook group. So far the pair have delivered 10 boxes to the community.
Lucy said: “She loves it. We’ve donated to people who’ve been made redundant, people who haven’t got their furlough money yet and people who are pregnant and are shielding.
“People say thank you to her and you can see her smile in the car. It’s nice that people are going out of their way to say thank you to her. I was more than happy to leave it on the doorstep and leave.”
There are plans to create more boxes after ex-military friends of Maisy’s grandfather, Paul Youd, donated £80 to the cause.
An Ash Vale resident has also donated £25, plus a bag of Wispa chocolate bars for Maisy, which she has generously shared with her younger brother.
Lucy added: “I really didn’t expect this or people to contribute more money. It’s been really lovely and it’s nice to see all the comments she’s had, and it means a lot to her when I read them out.
“She is just so kind-hearted – it took me back, to be honest. She could have got Barbie dolls, but she didn’t want to do that. I am really really proud of her.”