The Trust’s recent free meals initiative has been followed by the launch of Chester’s Christmas Toy Appeal to help other children in need in the local community.
Reflecting on the success of the free meals initiative, which saw food provided for youngsters in Chester’s Den at the Technique Stadium, the Trust’s Keith Jackson said: “It’s been overwhelming, to be perfectly honest.
“Local companies supported us and members of the community came down to donate and hand out food, which was fantastic.
“Nothing could have been more powerful than Beth’s photo of her two young boys, eating on the kitchen floor.
“When Marcus Rashford got involved in the story and thanked us for our part in it, everything went huge after that.
“It made more people aware of what we were doing and more people then came down and grabbed some lunches.”
A total of 500 lunches were made and distributed by the Trust during the half-term break.
“We just made sure that all the children in our region had access to food if they needed it,” said Keith.
“Anything we didn’t give out went to the Derbyshire Community Hub and we also went to a church in Dronfield to drop some food off there.”
Chester’s Christmas Toy Appeal has now been launched, with people encouraged to buy an extra toy when shopping for presents and donate it to the appeal.
“We know that there are children in our region who are going to wake up on Christmas Day without anything to open so we want to do our bit again and help out where we can,” added Keith.
Anyone who wants to donate to Chester’s Christmas Toy Appeal should wait until the lockdown period is over and then take the unwrapped toy(s) to Chester’s Den from Monday to Friday (8am-7pm).
Cosmetic Repair Solutions have kindly sponsored Chester’s Christmas Toy Appeal.
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