YEAR five pupils at St Nicholas' Middle School have been baking biscuits for the drop in café at Pershore Food Bank to show they care about those less fortunate.

The school already takes collections of non-perishable foods that the food bank, based at St Andrew's Hall, can make up into parcels for local people in need. The charity says a big part of its work involves talking with and advising those it helps, over a cup of tea, which is when the biscuits will be most welcome.

Since it opened a year ago, Pershore Food Bank, which is a Trussell Trust charity, has provided food parcels for more than 60 people each month, nearly half of whom are children, whose families have been affected by sudden crises, as a result of one, or a combination of factors, such as sickness, homelessness, unemployment and delays in benefits.

Judy Dale is chair of the charity’s steering group, which comprises volunteers from Pershore’s three churches: The Abbey, Baptist Church and Holy Redeemer, as well as from the local community, including Rotary:

“It is excellent that the pupils at St Nicholas' are learning that they can make a real difference and help people in their own area who face a crisis and, literally, have nothing to eat," she said.

“Pershore Food Bank is a crucial stop-gap, providing interim, practical crisis support to tide over affected adults and families until other agencies, like Social Services, can get involved," she added. “In the last six months our 40 volunteers have helped 454 people, 171 of them children in families facing difficulties, with up to nine days' worth of food, which is normally enough to allow them to get themselves sorted.

“We are always needing donations of non-perishable foods, tin openers and toiletries, but donations of money are also very welcome because we sometimes need to buy food for people with special dietary needs and we are fund-raising now to help pay for a new warehouse to store food because we are soon going to have to vacate our current premises.”

Carolyn Gemson, head of Design and Technology at St Nicholas', said baking biscuits for the café instead of for themselves has given the children a special motivation: “All of the children are very attentive and keen to make sure that they produce the very best biscuits they can, since many of them can only imagine what it must be like to go hungry for several days and they want to make a real difference to people locally who are facing hard times.”