Struggling families can pick up wrapped Mother’s Day gifts as well as food and supplies from Worcester Foodbank.

The presents have been wrapped by staff at accountancy firm Ballards LLP, so they are all ready to go before Sunday, March 19.

Ruth Allsopp, operations coordinator at Worcester Foodbank, said it would bring a bit of joy to mums who may not otherwise get a present.

He said: “At Worcester Foodbank our volunteers are always looking for ways to make the most of donations we have received and bring a little bit of joy to our clients during difficult times.

“A prime example is in 2021 one of our volunteers, Heather Green, noticed a stock of toiletry gift sets stored away in one of the corners of the warehouse and suggested that we could wrap these up and give one to each client in the lead up to Mother’s and Father’s Day.

“We know from talking to our clients that they are not often able to afford to treat that special person who has supported them, or often they are a parent who forgoes all luxuries to ensure their family doesn’t go without.

Worcester News: Rebecca Nicol, Becky Fowler, Jo Walker, Glenys Morrison, Lucinda Ramsay and Bev Rachel wrapping the giftsRebecca Nicol, Becky Fowler, Jo Walker, Glenys Morrison, Lucinda Ramsay and Bev Rachel wrapping the gifts (Image: Ballards LLP)

“We hoped these gifts would bring a smile to our clients faces - and we’ve got this reaction, sometimes tears too, but happy of course.”

Since then, volunteers have put any appropriate gifts to one side throughout the year and started wrapping them in the spring.

“This year we had accumulated 13 crates of lovely gifts and were so grateful when Ballards offered to wrap them for us,” said Ruth.

READ MORE: Worcester Foodbank supports over 1,000 children with food

“As we are volunteers at the food bank, there is only a certain amount of capacity and wrapping this number of gifts would have taken many hours. They have done a beautiful job.”

Ballards business services partner Ben Allman said: “The Ballards team is very community-focused, and we all recognise the extreme pressure that local communities are currently under, with many having to make the brave choice to ask for assistance.

“We were extremely grateful to have been asked to help.”