A primary school teacher is walking five miles a day to deliver packed lunches to disadvantaged children during the coronavirus pandemic.
Zane Powles, assistant head teacher at Western Primary School, delivers 78 lunches to families in Grimsby, driving half in his car and taking half on foot. Each lunch contains a sandwich, packet of crisps, biscuit and apple.
Around four out of 10 pupils at the school are classed as disadvantaged and qualify for free school meals. Executive head teacher Kim Leach also delivers lunches to children who live further way in her car.
Mr Powles, a former soldier, said of his deliveries: ‘It encourages parents to stay in their homes with their children, and keeps everyone safe.’
The teacher said he also checks in on families when dropping off the food on the doorstep, and chats to the parents from a distance on the pavement.
He makes sure to follow social distancing guidelines, and always wears gloves while handling the packed lunch bags.
Many of the houses he helps have now put out signs showing their appreciate for his work, with one reading: ‘Well done Mr Powles.’
Mr Powles, who was awarded Primary Teacher of the Year in 2019, said: ‘My job is the welfare of children and educating them. In these times I’m just doing it in a different way.’
He said the best he could do is ‘never fail’ the pupils of his school, adding that the response to his services had been ‘brilliant’.
The lunches are all provided by the school’s catering contractor. The deliveries will continue through what would have been the school’s Easter break.
