Charities and communities in and around Leamington and Warwick team up to bring kindness to young people

Charities and communities from across the Warwick district have been working together to bring kindness to young people

Warwickshire Search and Rescue Search Operations lead, Phil Hewish, teamed up with Leamington Morrisons' community champion, Alex Pearson, and Warwick-based charity Evelyn’s Gift to spread more acts of kindness.

Together, they made sure that the food bank at Smith’s Wood Academy in Birmingham could be stocked up in time for them to make food hampers before the end of term.

Evelyn’s Gift bought some fresh produce to add to the large amount of tinned and dried foods that have been donated by customers at Morrisons in Leamington, and it was all loaded into a Warwickshire Search and Rescue vehicle and taken over to Smith’s Wood.

Evelyn’s Gift is working with Smith’s Wood Academy to help those young people in most need, thanks to a grant that the charity was invited to apply for.

The charity was set up in memory of seven-year-old Evelyn from Warwick, to do little acts of kindness for people in need, mainly in south Warwickshire.

Evelyn’s mum, Helen Smith, said: “I am immensely grateful to Alex at Morrisons, her customers and to Phil at Warwickshire Search and Rescue.

"Together we have delivered food that will go into hampers for families in need.

"Without the support of Warwickshire Search and Rescue, we could not have delivered this large quantity of products.

"This was a real team effort to ensure that young people don’t go hungry over the holiday period.

"Alex is a real asset to many local charities in Leamington and Warwick. She continues to fund raise, help us to publicise our work and encourage charities to support one another.”

Phil Hewish said: “As a team, we continue to operate searching for high risk missing people in the West Midlands and Warwickshire areas, and ensuring that our local communities are supported in any way we can help.”

Alex Pearson, added: “It’s been great, not just to support our local community, but to be able to help those in a wider area.

"Our customers have been amazing and have donated loads of food from our pick bags in store so we can help so many people. We all have a community and I am so proud to be a part of this community.

"If you want to help us feed the nation you can help by picking up a pick bag in store and donating it to our food bank cage.

"It’s been great we have been able to support Evelyn’s Gift and support the community on a larger scale, with the support of Warwickshire search and rescue.”