CARE home residents have been thanked and praised after putting together goody bags to donate to a Colchester-based children’s charity.
Residents at Stanway Green Lodge Residential Care Home made bags full of snacks and treats to give to Home Start.
The non-profit organisation, based at the Ark, in Highwoods, is an independent charity working to support children and families.
It hosts maternity groups and activities and workshops for young people and offers a children and family wellbeing service.
After completing their haul of goodie bags, charity workers Juliette and Hayley visited the care home to thank the residents for their donations and hard work.
They spoke about the work they do at the charity and answered lots of questions from residents.
The charity workers also told them their donations would be given to primary school children in the area during half-term activity clubs run by the charity.
Resident Brian Parker said: “It’s nice to know that people like that are around to help. I hope our treat bags are enjoyed by those that receive them.”
Aniket Kanitkar, manager of the care home added: “The residents felt happy to be able to help a local charity like this.
“They made about 50 bags in total. They were quite substantial bags including fruit, sultanas and snacks.
“We made them in an assembly line with an orange station, fruit station, crisp station, toy station, chocolate station and more.
“They wanted to help because we try and interact with community as much as we can so they feel a part of the community and not isolated in a home.
“So it helps both sides, we help charities and the residents enjoy helping. They found it really interesting learning about the charity too.
“It was nice of the charity to come and speak with us and they said they will send pictures of the bags being given to children.
“Last October we did a big donation drive to the Salvation Army and Stanway Evangelical Church.
“Because the care home has links with supermarkets and wholesalers we managed to get together 16 large boxed of non-perishables including pasta, rice, soups, tinned foods and toiletries which helped people over Christmas.”
Home Start bosses said they really appreciated the residents thinking of the charity.
A spokesman said: "Thank you so much for the goodie bags.
"The children we are supporting will be so happy to receive these and we are planning on handing them out next week during our half term activities. It will be a welcomed treat for them all.
"Thank you to all of you at Stanway Lodge Residential Home, it's so very thoughtful of all your Residents and Staff.
"We very much enjoyed visiting you all last week, and we hope to see you all again soon."
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