St Bride's Teaching Staff Deliver Food to Govanhill Families

by Rhiannon J Davies

Pupils may not be able to come into school, but teachers from one Govanhill primary school found themselves visiting pupils’ homes last Friday.

The depute head and two of the teachers from St Bride’s Primary spent three hours delivering around 300 meals to 40 families in Govanhill – in recognition of the fact that many are struggling. They worked with Launch Foods, a charity who normally visit after school once a month with their food truck. They serve up hot, healthy meals, and other items such as fruit, for children to take home. 

Lesley McConnon, depute head teacher and one of the volunteers helping to deliver the meals said:

“We are so thankful to Launch Foods for providing this service and helping us to help our families. Our staff are so committed to doing what they can to assist our pupils and their families, we hope that this small gesture will ease the pressure that many will find themselves under during these difficult times.” 

Launch Foods registered as a charity last August, and under normal circumstances, provide around 300 hot meals a day to various primary schools across Glasgow. The food is available to every child at the school, no matter what their situation. In the past twelve months, they’ve provided over 70,000 hot meals.

The charity was set up because founder, Craig Johnson, couldn’t reconcile the idea of surplus food going to waste while children in Glasgow went hungry. During lockdown, Johnson said they are continuing their work with schools:

“We currently provide the same service to families delivering direct. We receive no funding from Glasgow City Council or Government for our work with the schools and rely on donations.”

As well as donations of food and money, their volunteers were supplied with hand sanitiser by Glasgow Distillery. In response to the crisis, the company switched their manufacturing from single malt to sanitiser, producing 1500 litres in their first batch which was distributed to charities and service providers.

After lockdown was introduced, Johnson contacted St Bride’s to see how they could continue to support families around Govanhill. Speaking about the school, he said: “We were impressed by the enthusiasm the teachers displayed and the fact that they clearly cared about their community.”

The chef and volunteers from Launch Foods worked alongside school staff to make up and deliver the parcels to families, that teachers thought could benefit from additional support. They plan to do this on a weekly basis while lockdown continues.

Each family received two meals (a pasta and a curry dish) for every member of the family, along with non-perishable items and fruit. The meals can be heated up or frozen for use at a later date. In order to manage the deliveries, a text was sent out to families, translated into appropriate languages.

Depute head teacher, McConnon, also highlighted the efforts the teachers were making to continue to provide their pupils with schoolwork and keep in touch with families:

“Staff are using the school website, Twitter and apps such as Showbie and Seesaw to update pupil tasks. Pupils were given a printed learning pack to take home before the school closures. We are also contacting some parents by telephone to check in on a regular basis.”

Anyone interested in supporting Launch Foods, can do so via their GoFundMe page or if individuals or those in the business community would like to donate direct, they can email: hello@launchfoods.org.