Community ‘hero’ is thanked by a Doncaster school who say children would have gone hungry without her

Armthorpe Academy wants to say a huge thank you to Jackie Palmer who has spent a great deal of time making sure that children who were eligible for free school meals got food delivered to their homes in the October half term.

Rebecca Whyles, business manager at Armthorpe Academy, said: “It was impossible for us to help all the children in our school who are entitled to free school lunches on our own.

“Jackie worked through the night to make sure that 160 children from our school had food delivered to their doors on Monday and Tuesday of the half term.

“We simply could not have done it without her.

"She’s a local hero.”

Jackie is a Community Champion at the Armthorpe branch of Morrisons.

She worked with the schools and the supermarket to pull off 272 deliveries to children across Armthorpe.

Jackie, 44, said: “It was a team effort between myself and other Morrison employees.

“We had to deliver the food packages on top of our regular deliveries.

“It was tiring and long but we all pulled together and we’re really proud of what we did for the community.

Due to the pandemic Rebecca says that the number of children who qualify for free school meals is higher than normal and may continue to rise.

But thanks to Jackie’s community work many had a weight taken off of their shoulders.

Jackie said: “Parents were so grateful when we brought them the food.

“Many of them got quite choked up and we really felt like we did something good.”

This community work is not uncommon for Jackie as she is often doing her best to help others.

She has recently put together parcels for parents that had been made redundant, donated food to the Armthorpe food bank and raised money with a cake decorating competition.

Jackie is currently working to bring Christmas hampers to residents in care homes in Armthorpe as family visits have been reduced due to Covid-19.

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