THE phrase ‘in a world where you can be anything, be kind’ is being lived out through the actions of the owner of a Hartford preschool.

Alongside a team of helpers Alison Thompson, of Sir Leslie Martin Day Nursery, has been cooking and distributing fresh, nutritious meals to those in need during the lockdown, providing support and sustenance for the vulnerable and elderly.

Since the Government announced its Covid 19 restrictions, Alison has cooked hundreds of meals for those in need – sometimes up to 80 a day – while also running the Bradburns Lane nursery.

Alison was partly inspired by not being able to directly help her own parents, who live in south Yorkshire and have been shielding for the past 12 weeks. She also had to return home from doing charitable work in India when the lockdown was announced and felt there was something that she could do closer to home.

The initiative has been a real team effort with colleagues, residents and businesses playing a part. When the lockdown was announced Alison asked her staff if they had any relatives or knew of any people locally who weren’t able to get any food delivered. They drew up a list and the scheme grew from there.

"We have met some absolutely wonderful people doing this," Alison said.

"We’ve had a lot of great support and made some lovely relationships with people in the community.

"The Hollies has been fantastic, bringing us food, and there is a wonderful butcher who has supplied great meat so they’re getting some good quality nutritious food in their meals, we’ve even been supplied with containers to put the meals in. Everyone involved has been so generous.

"My staff have been absolutely amazing, putting their lives at risk doing a great job to make sure the children of key workers are looked after, as well as supporting me in this idea.”

But as much as this experience has been heart-warming, it’s also been eye-opening and has shone a light on the problem of isolation amongst the vulnerable.

Which is why Alison wants to carry on cooking meals for those in need when lockdown finishes and is considering running the scheme at least three days a week going forward.

"There are a lot of lonely and isolated people in our community, particularly the elderly," she said.

"Some of them have no family at all, or no relatives near them to be able to help them out. A lot of them struggle with being isolated even at the best of times.

"For some of them, it’s been a real highlight just to see another person, even if it is someone in full PPE. We’ve encountered some wonderful people, all with a story to tell, who were lonely and vulnerable even before all this began.

"I want to keep them going because I think it could make a big difference to a lot of people's wellbeing."