Taxi firm chauffeurs families to supermarket for free - and pays for their groceries

Tony O’Donnell, director of Peterlee Executive Cars, wanted to “give something back to the community” amid the ongoing row over whether children should be entitled to free meals over the October break.

So, from Monday to Friday of this week, he offered to take one family a day to and from a local supermarket of their choice and to pay for £30 of groceries on each occasion.

Tony, 52, from Peterlee, who set up his business in 2006 after previously working at Nissan, explained: “It was on the back of the Government’s refusal to support children with free school meals over the holidays.

"We cover an area where there are people struggling. I see it on social media and I know people personally who are struggling.

"Our business has grown in this community, the community has supported us and we wanted to give something back to the community.”

Tony made his offer via the firm’s Facebook page and asked interested families to message him personally before deciding who the five winners would be.

One of the company’s six drivers is then joining the passengers inside the supermarket to pay for £30 of groceries – the offer doesn’t cover cigarettes or alcohol – at the check out.

He said: “We had a reasonably good response and have chosen five families with children who would normally receive free school meals. That was our target audience.

"The people we have taken so far have been overwhelmed, to be fair.

"They have been very humbled and touched about it and ecstatic to receive £30 worth of groceries.

"The type of places we have taken them to so far, such as Iceland and Aldi, they have been coming out with four of five bags worth of shopping which will last them a couple of weeks.”

Tony’s gesture has been echoed across the North East with a host of free food initiatives taking place this week in areas such as Sunderland and Hartlepool.

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