Thoughtful Sunderland College teenagers to donate over 100 Easter eggs for disadvantaged children

With spiraling energy and food prices compounded by the recent rise in the cost of fuel at the pumps, times have never been harder for some of the city’s poorest families.

With some parents on benefits and low incomes facing a genuine choice of eating or heating, buying Easter eggs will represent a real challenge for some families.

At a time many young people are enjoying the freedom of socialising again, a group of selfless criminology students showed the importance of thinking of others by launching an appeal to collect 100 Easter eggs to donate to Sunderland Food Bank to pass on to families in need.

With 75 chocolate eggs already donated from students, teaching and non-teaching staff, the kind-hearted teenagers are on target to smash their goal.

Neive Martin, 17, said: “With the rise in the cost of living, some families just wont’t be able to afford to buy luxury items such as Easter eggs. Everything is going up but people’s wages aren’t.

"I work with children from disadvantaged backgrounds and with Christmas, Easter and birthdays there are just so many things for people to afford. Despite this, a lot of children wouldn’t understand why they didn’t get an Easter egg and so we wanted to do something to put a smile on their faces on Easter morning.”

Fellow student, Mia O’Donnell, 17, added: “We’ve collected for the Food Bank before and just wanted to do something different to help parents who maybe can’t afford to buy Easter eggs. It’s sad to think some children might not get an egg on Easter morning and so hopefully we’ve done something which will make them happy.”

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Molly Finnon, 18, was keen to stress the importance of young people having a social conscience.

She said: “I believe thinking of others is really important. There’s a lot of bad things going on the world at the moment and so it’s vital we all do what we can to help make a difference to people’s lives.”

Criminology lecturer, Dan Gibson, said: “I’m really proud of the students who are really engaged in the issues affecting society and want to give back to the community.”

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