Vicar’s help for local families
A BIG hearted Halifax vicar and his church have dug deep to help out their community for the second time in two months.
At Christmas, Rev Robb Sutherland and Holy Nativity Church in Mixenden set up their own ‘elves workshop’ to make food and gift packs for every child at Ash Green Community Primary School.
Now, with February half term holidays approaching, Holy Nativity has stepped in again to help support families in the week that the children are all at home.
Throughout the term, families have been able to access government free school meal vouchers and Ash Green Community Primary School also provides breakfast packs for all families as well as food parcels for the most vulnerable families.
To fill the void during the holiday, Holy Nativity has secured funding to provide every child in the school with a £10 shopping voucher.
The vouchers are being hand delivered, abiding by social distancing guidelines, by school staff, Rev Robb himself and school governors tied into house calls that Ash Green’s staff members regularly undertake during lockdown to check on children’s welfare, deliver food, hand out prizes for outstanding remote learning work and to support families with any concerns that can’t be dealt with by phone.
“This is just another fantastic example of the collective community work that takes place in Mixenden,” said Ash Green’s head teacher Mungo Sheppard. “These are desperately tough times and the school and the church will always do everything possible to help our families. “Reverend Robb and his team are an inspiration to us all in their indefatigable approach to community work.
“We are all working our hardest to support children academically and pastorally but also to help out all of our families in every way we can.”
Rev Sutherland said: We hope that a £10 Morrisons voucher for each child at Ash Green will help families across the estate and make being stuck at home in the coldest and darkest part of the year a little bit brighter.”