Have you heard of the PIE Food and Fun Bag Challenge? Food and Fun! What’s not to like?!
PIE & Pretty Tough Things’ Gemma Piper have been busy the last few weeks with many projects, but one in particular has seen us with trolleys piled high, cars full to the brim, rainbow bags filled and crafty muscles flexed. Our Food and Fun Bag Challenge has supported families all across Stockport to keep them busy and engaged with cooking and crafting.
Funded by Stockport County Food Fund in association with Keep Stockport Caring campaign, each family received a food pack designed to provide a family with at least one home-cooked meal, and an activity pack every week since Easter. For example, Easter week provided recipes and ingredients for egg muffins, plus chocolate eggs and clues for an Easter Egg Hunt. Our Family Quiz week provided quiz questions and party accessories, plus ingredients for home-made pizzas, in addition to which we ran an online interactive Quiz and Disco!
There were six weeks in total, 75 families each week, six themes and over 900 bags collated and distributed to our partners from all over Stockport:
Reddish Vale High School in Reddish, Adswood Primary School in Adswood, Harrytown High School in Werneth, All Saints and Rose Hill Primaries in Marple, and families in Woodley and Brinnington via Start Point Cafe.
“Providing food and activities for these families has been something we have been really proud to have done as Stockport has come out of lockdown. Many families are continuing to struggle, not only for food but to help engage and occupy young people at home. We hope that these packs have brought a little bit of happiness as well as support to families over the last few months."
PIE Founder, Beth Nunn.
Here at PIE, while we have really enjoyed putting the bags together and working with our community, we’ve also enjoyed receiving feedback from our partners about the success of the Challenge and the benefits it has brought to families:
“The bags have been handed out weekly to pupils in my class-Year 5/6. The children love these bags and look forward to seeing what's inside them every week. The children go home and start to use the ingredients to prepare meals/snacks, which they then send us photos of via our Home/Parent app. They love to share what they have made with their families and we love to see their creations. Thank you so much for these bags-they have been a huge success and greatly appreciated by all.”
Mandy Lennon - Class teacher - Adswood Primary School.
“Reddish Vale are so grateful for the food/activity packs. Our families have absolutely loved them and are excited each week to see what they get. The quiz night was particularly popular with one family saying "it was lovely to do something as a family and join in together, we had so much fun!" Thank you PIE!”
Hannah Knight – Reddish Vale High School.
“Thank you so much Beth, we have had a lot of feedback from the pupils who received the food packs and activities. They seem to have particularly enjoyed the baking activities. The lovely thing about it is that we have also managed to develop our relationships with parents as it has been a great talking point.”
Jane Fahy – Harrytown High School.
"Following on from the amazing generosity Gemma showed some of our more vulnerable families last Christmas, when she donated a number of Christmas hamper bags, I was thrilled when she got back in touch and offered the chance for us to work together again, with further donations for our families. The bags of ingredients for children to prepare meals with their grown-ups at home offered the kind of opportunity many of them rarely get, which is to make something from scratch with the guidance of a parent. It was a chance for families to work together towards a goal they could all enjoy. It was also a chance for me to put a bit of extra food into certain households that I know are always in need. And then with the accompanying activity, again the children got the chance to do something a bit different, something that might encourage them away from the TV and the tablets and back towards playing together. Many of the families that were identified to receive these gifts often do not have that much extra to be able to treat their children, so for these children to receive books, stickers, colourful water bottles, and craft kits was really something very special. My personal thanks go to Gemma and her colleagues for giving me the opportunity to do something so kind and caring for some of our most disadvantaged children. Thank you so much to everyone involved. You have made a difference." Laura Bailey - Pastoral Manager - Rose Hill Primary School
“A huge thankyou to you and your team, the families have been blown away by your generosity.”
Miss Daley - All Saints Primary School
It has been an absolute pleasure completing this project, with thanks again to Stockport County Food Fund in association with Keep Stockport Caring campaign. We are so pleased to have both supported these families in a creative and practical way, but to also play a role in building their relationships with their schools and communities. As Gemma put it: “I’m thrilled to have been part of such a rewarding community project alongside the awesome team at PIE. Projects like this make such a difference to families, I can’t wait for the next one!” And neither can we!