Sandstone Care Homes Offering Free Packed Lunches

Three of our care homes in Fleetwood, Longridge and St Helens are offering free packed lunches to struggling local families during the half-term holidays.

Fleetwood Hall Care Home, Longridge Hall Care Home and St Helens Hall Care Home, all part of the Sandstone Care Group, are keen to hear from local families who would like help. All information will be kept confidential.

The homes are offering home-made packed lunches from Monday through to Friday this week containing a sandwich, drink, fruit, crisps and a yogurt to those who would normally qualify for free school meals.

It follows a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford to provide free meals for children over half term after Ministers ruled out extending free meals beyond term time.

Joanne Warren, manager of Fleetwood Hall Care Home, said: “Over the past seven months we have been on the receiving end of so much goodwill from local people and this is our way of giving something back to our community.

Tracey Hartley, manager of Longridge Hall Care Home, said: “So many people have seen their incomes reduce during the pandemic and we wanted to do something to help. We’ve already had a number of phone calls from local families and lots of lovely comments on our social media.”

Amanda Clark, manager of St Helens Hall Care Home in Thatto Heath, said:  “We’ve already had a number of families calling us asking for packed lunches. No child should go hungry and we hope that our small gesture will help.”

Ben Challinor, one of the directors of Sandstone Care Group, said: “We felt it was important to get involved in this hugely important initiative. There are lots of families in urgent need and we are delighted to be playing our part.”