Community Spirit

From sewing scrubs and donating much needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline workers, cooking meals in bulk for staff at a local hospital to delivering food, medical supplies and meals to the elderly and vulnerable – every little helps.

A few QM Teachers and their daughters have been using sewing machines from the Art Department to make scrubs for the NHS as part of a countrywide initiative in the fight against coronavirus. For the Love of Scrubs has become such a success that there are now regional groups and the representative for York recently collected this much needed contribution.

In another thoughtful gesture, two crates packed full of PPE including gloves, aprons and instant soap were donated to St Leonard’s Hospice. A raid on the School’s Tuck Shop also provided a welcome supply of Quavers, Cadbury Crème Eggs and other sweet treats, to help keep spirits up during this difficult time.

One Year IV girl and her family are making 300 meals a day to feed NHS staff on the front line in their local hospital. The family have been busy in the kitchen of their pub, The Old White Hart to help the Food4Heroes initiative. Over the course of eight weeks, they have provided nearly 17,000 nutritious meals to deserving NHS staff who are working hard in the fight against coronavirus.

Similarly, one Old Margaretian has been ensuring that vulnerable members of her community are supplied with healthy meals – cooking and delivering hot meals for those unable to leave their homes to buy food. Although her catering company, The Plattery, has lost all its business for the foreseeable future, she has dedicated some of her profits from last month and money from her own pocket to cover the costs. Demonstrating the same strong community spirit, one current Year V girl has been using her new moped to set up a community service delivering essential supplies including food and medical to the elderly and vulnerable.

Sue Baillie, Head, Queen Margaret’s said: “We have been so inspired by the lengths some of the QM Family are going to to help the elderly and vulnerable during lockdown. We know that our community spirit is what makes QM the very special place it is and to see this being extended far beyond the boundaries of Escrick Park is truly heartwarming.”