A caring six-year-old girl from Motherwell has shown the true spirit of Christmas by collecting hundreds of food items for people in need.
Evie Thompson, a P2 pupil at Knowetop Primary, set out to collect for Motherwell Food Bank at the Maranatha Centre with an initial target of gathering 100 items in a three-week period.
The youngster smashed that total and this week handed over more than 350 items to Andrew Ewart at the centre in Glencairn Street, which is run by Clyde Valley Community Church.
Evie decided to help people who may be struggling through the festive period after a chat with her mum, Emma Thompson.
Emma explained: “We were tidying out her toy room and were talking about it at school. And she said to me, ‘Oh Mummy, there are lots of wee boys and girls who are not going to have a Christmas like us’.
“So we were talking about it and she asked if she could sell some of her toys. I said, absolutely!
“Then we were in the car driving to gymnastics and there were lots of people queuing for the food bank and Evie asked what it was, and I explained to her and she said she wanted to collect for them.
“When we got home she disappeared for an hour and then came back with a poster she had made, and it had pictures of different things and said, ‘Collect 100 items’.
“I said to her: ‘You know what, let’s do it’.
“She went into school and told her class mates about it and I put it in the P2 chat, and it just grew arms and legs. She’s been coming out of school every day like Muscle Woman carrying all these bags.
“The target was 100 items but as we speak she has something like 350. She is so happy and her head teacher was talking about it at school assembly.
“She’s just such a caring wee girl, and what she was looking forward to most was meeting Andrew up at the centre, as he was going to show her how everything works. She was absolutely buzzing and can’t stop talking about it.
“Obviously, every parent is proud of their kids but she is such a caring wee soul. I know that lots of people do great wee things, but I just think for being only six and doing this off her own back is amazing.”
The food bank receives donations via ASDA and normally averages around two trollies full each week but that number has jumped up to six this week already, thanks to the generosity of individuals.
Andrew Ewart at Motherwell Food Bank was delighted to welcome Evie to the centre as she delivered the items she’d collected.
He said: “We were overwhelmed by Evie doing this, it’s wonderful.
“We are fairly self sufficient, so we can’t thank people like Evie enough. It’s amazing what people do for you and we’re incredibly grateful to Evie and everyone like her.
“This is the busiest we have been all year and we had 92 people come in yesterday for food parcels, that supports about 260 people as some of these are for families.
“Three years ago we were giving out food parcels to 30 people, but demand has gone up.”
The food bank normally opens on Thursdays from 10am to 1pm but for two consecutive weeks over the festive period that will change to Fridays at the same time.
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