Waitrose charity link brings schoolchildren some seasonal joy in troubled times

Children of key coronavirus workers from across East Northamptonshire got a super Easter egg treat, thanks to a partnership between Waitrose, in Rushden and near-neighbours Spurgeons Charity.

While their parents went out to work for the NHS and in other key roles in their communities during lockdown, children from schools run by the Nene Education Trust had made it in to Windmill Primary School when lessons were interrupted to hand each of them their seasonal chocolate boost.

Travel restrictions had prevented Spurgeons from getting the eggs donated to them by Waitrose to any of the 37,000 children and young people they support across the country, so the charity decided the eggs should go to children local to its head office on Wellingborough Road, in Rushden.

The children receiving the eggs at Windmill Primary came from Stanwick Primary; Woodford Primary; Newton Road School, in Rushden; and Manor School Sports College, Raunds, as well as Windmill.

Spurgeons’ link to the schools had been made possible by the charity’s office Chaplain, Peter Eyre, who co-ordinates the food bank at the Park Road Baptist Church, in Rushden. The church also runs a food parcel service in partnership with Newton Road School, getting welcome supplies to disadvantaged families associated with the school.

As Sarah Mitchell, Assistant Principal at Manor School, explained: “During the Covid-19 school closure, children of critical/key workers joined with other students from other local schools in a similar situation within the Nene Education Trust, at Windmill School in Raunds.