Last updated 19:31, Thursday, 27 November 2008

A MARYPORT school is helping townsfolk to beat the credit crunch.

Ellenborough and Ewanrigg Infant School has joined the Cumbria Food Co-op and is encouraging parents to put aside cash each week to buy Christmas hampers of Cumbrian-sourced turkey, meat, vegetables and fruit.

The school has also entered into its own deal with local businesses and is offering dairy packs and a confectioner’s hamper.

It wants to help people spread the cost of Christmas.

Pupils have also joined the Maryport branch of the Credit Union and parents are being encouraged to join up and to put money aside for Christmas.

Julie Pearson, school learning mentor, said 58 hampers will be delivered this Christmas.

But she said as the recession started to bite, she believed numbers would be even higher next year.

She said she had a responsibility to work with parents as well as pupils.

She said: “With the help of others we started this scheme a couple of years ago and it has just escalated.

“We wanted to help people to be able to budget for Christmas at an affordable rate.”

The scheme was mainly run to help parents and there is a fund-raising component.

“We suggest people might make a donation of £1 per customer towards our school funds. Not everyone does or can. I think we made about £45 this year,” she added.

But, she said, the main focus was to help people in the community, and the scheme was also helping local businesses.

This year’s hampers have generated £1,160 for Tim Copsey’s farm in Lower Seaton, £400 for Kemp’s Bakery and £200 for a dairy company.

She said the scheme was not confined to parents of school pupils but was open to anyone in the community.

Julie and Christine Palmer run the scheme and will be back at school on December 23 to distribute the boxes.

To order goods now or join the food or Christmas savings scheme next year, call the school on 01900 812931.