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Volunteers hand out 109 lunches in 3 days

A meal donation group provides holiday lunches for children who normally get free school lunches.

More than one hundred packed lunches were given out in the first three days of a community scheme to help families whose children normally get free school meals.

Sammi and Gareth Farrell who run IoM Community Meal Donations launched an appeal after the government scrapped a school voucher scheme to support families through the summer break.

The government support, introduced last year due to high unemployment and school closures, only ran for one summer, something which, according to volunteers, left many not knowing where to turn.

So far, Sammi and Gareth have raised more than three thousand pounds and are currently distributing lunches three days a week.

They also send food vouchers to those unable to collect.

The pair started providing meals to the elderly during lockdown last year but recently extended the service after "tons" of messages from young families requesting help.

They said over three distribution days between the second and sixth August they gave out 109 packed lunches.

Sammi said: "We wouldn't see anyone, let alone a child, go hungry, so Gareth and I put some money into the pot to start up the free packed lunches, we spent around £300 to get things moving and then public donations started coming in to keep us going.

"I was up until midnight packing bags ready for distribution around the Island, answering tons of messages and trying to make arrangements",

You can read more about IoM Community Meal Donations fundraising page here.

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