Staff in the Thomas Deacon Education Trust (TDET) catering team, which supports ten sites across Peterborough and its local area, helped local families by delivering over 600 food parcels for pupils over the last four weeks.
TDET is a multi-academy Trust and charitable organisation that aims to raise educational outcomes across schools in the East Midlands.
The Trust provided five-day and ten-day food parcels for families who were self-isolating. The parcels contained nutritious food including fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, bread, cereal and non-perishable food.
The parcels also contained recipe cards and a suggested weekly planner to help parents prepare the food for their children. All food parcels were adapted based on students’ allergies and dietary requirements.
Alongside this service, the TDET catering team continued to provide healthy hot meals for all key worker and vulnerable children still attending school.
Michael Dove, catering operations manager for TDET, commented, “It has been an honour to support our local community throughout this pandemic.
“We understand that food plays a very important role in enabling our pupils to achieve their very best. For some children, the meal they would usually have at school would be their only hot meal of the day and it is important that we continue to provide this for them in the best way we can.
“I want to thank our staff who have worked incredibly hard throughout this difficult time. We have all needed to be incredibly flexible to follow government guidance and adapt to the level of support required by our communities at different times.'
Dove finished, “However, all this hard work is made worthwhile when we see one of our families collect their food parcels. Our parents are incredibly thankful, and some have been in tears. Families have contacted us with absolutely no food left in their cupboards and for them, our support is a lifeline.”
