A NEW Forest charity is working with two schools from New Milton to provide food for hundreds of students entitled to free lunches during the enforced school closures.

On day one of the school closure, the Lymington-based New Forest Basics Bank worked with school volunteers to supply special food parcels to more than 100 students from The Arnewood School and Eaglewood School.

Each parcel contained enough food to feed a student for five days and ensured they had something to tie them over until the government is able to roll out a voucher system.

Chairman Oli Stanley said: “The Covid-19 crisis is going to have a huge impact on so many families, from those who are already struggling financially to those who will face hardship as a direct result of the situation we’re in.

“Charities like ours are never going to be so needed and in many ways, we will be like the fourth emergency service.

“Free school meals have been a vital way of ensuring so many of our young people receive at least one balanced meal a day.”

Staff from The Arnewood School and Eaglewood School contacted New Forest Basics Bank to see if it could help provide lunches to students who would not be able to attend school.

The schools were delighted Basic Bank were able to offer their expertise in logistics, sourcing food and distribution.

Oli added:“We knew we couldn’t afford to wait until the government could launch a voucher system to replace free meals and children would need help from day one.

“We have responded to that, which is a very different way of working to our normal day to day food bank operation, but we are pleased to be able to rise to the challenge and offer a solution.

“I have a very dedicated team who have worked tirelessly over the past few days to make sure this happened.”

The charity then began organising the parcels, which contain pasta, sauces, tins of fish and meats, vegetables, meatballs, spaghetti, soups, rice pudding, tinned fruit and custard and biscuits. There will also be bread, spread and cheese.

The food bank has set up a mini distribution centre at the school with volunteers handing out the parcels to children of families in need.

Headteacher, Nigel Pressnell, said: “We are incredibly grateful to New Forest Basics Bank for helping us to ensure our students continue to receive the free meals they are entitled to.

“Eaglewood and Arnewood are very much community schools and we were worried for some of our children might be unable to access their usual free school meals.”

“These are unprecedented and worrying for times for everyone who works in education. It means a lot to us that the community is rallying together to ensure there is as little impact on our students as possible.”

Staff from The Arnewood School made home deliveries to those parents who are key workers in receipt of free school meals and who were unable to attend the collection as occupied in the front line.

New Forest Basics Bank is appealing for more donations as it prepares to help people through the Covid-19 crisis.

For more information on how you can help go to https://basicsbank.org.uk/.