The 50 hampers have been delivered by city charity Family Voice Peterborough which helps to improve the lives of children and young people with disabilities or additional needs.
Family Voice has been providing continual support to families during the pandemic and recently delivered wellbeing packs to parent carers.
One of the recipients of a hamper was dad of three Viktoras Savicius, who said: “Thank you Family Voice Peterborough, it is amazing. The children are so happy.
“You made this difficult time much better and much more cheerful.”
Mum of two Kerry Russell said: “Thank you so much for Hannah and Rhys’ Christmas in a box. We all really appreciate it.”
The hampers have been distributed to 93 adults and 140 children.
Among those to support the initiative were:
. BGL, which donated £2,500
. One Stop, which donated dairy products for all the hampers
. Plants Eggs, which heavily subsidised eggs
. ABC Meats, which offered subsidised meat vouchers for hampers
. IPL and Albert Bartlett, which donated all of the vegetables and bags to put in them and also helped deliver the hampers to the families
. Collmart Growers, which donated the cardboard boxes for the hampers
. The Rotary Club of Peterborough and councillors Irene Walsh, Heather Skibsted and Graham Casey who volunteered to pack and put together all the hampers and helped deliver them
. Barnardo’s and the Salvation Army, which donated all the toys for the hampers.
Moreover, Family Voice worked with the organisations to support other families, meaning more than 250 households have been supported in total.
John Ravenscroft from Family Voice Peterborough said: “Family Voice would like to thank organisations and businesses for coming together and working alongside us, especially during these difficult times, to ensure that SEND families across Peterborough could have a decent Christmas.
“We would have loved to have helped more families but, unfortunately, we were only able to help and provide for a certain amount of households due to having insufficient resources and under the current circumstances.
“However, we are looking to provide and support more families over the coming months and would like to wish you well and hope you stay safe during this difficult period.
“Love and seasons greetings from Family Voice.”
