Youngsters at one Romford school learnt an important lesson about helping those in need when they managed to collect swathes of supplies for a local food bank.

Pupils at the Mawney Foundation School in Mawney Road, have spent the last two months collecting non-perishable foods as part of their harvest festival celebrations.

And on Friday, representatives from the Collier Row food bank visited the school to collect the impressive hordes of food the youngsters had collected.

Eight-year-old Freya Macbeth said: “If people who didn’t have much food and could have the food we brought in then it would help them.

“It makes me feel nice to do this, because I like helping other people.”

And Freddie Simmons, also eight, added: “We had a Harvest Festival to give food to people who don’t have enough – it’s great that we brought stuff in.

“I feel very happy because now the people with no food will get some food.”