A student at Featherstone High School in Southall helped bring joy to struggling families this Christmas.

Year 10 pupil Mohammed Asraf, together with his fellow students and his family, worked to provide a pop-up food bank at the Featherstone Sports Centre next to the school yesterday (Monday), just before Christmas.

After having the idea, Mohammed worked with his year group, his head of year Ms Nixon, and the sports centre’s manager Juma Abdullahi. Between them, they managed to get together a huge spread of food, household goods and toys and then organised an event to give them away to families in need.

Community ambassadors from the school, from Year 7, also stepped in to help him by collecting boxes of toys and students and staff brought in lots of items too. Meanwhile, school library staff helped sort out the goods ready for the food bank event, which was run yesterday (23 December).

Mohammed and his sister Kathija led the way at the event, with help from Dee Bharj, Ms Nixon and Ms Thompson.

‘I was overwhelmed by the support’

Mohammed has run smaller-scale collections before and was recently recognised for his community work at the Southall Community Alliance Awards.

He said: “To all the teachers at Featherstone High School and the students who have supported me and contributed towards my food bank collection, I would like to say a huge ‘thank you.’ I was overwhelmed by all the support and guidance I have had from you all, and I could not have done this without you.”

Featherstone headteacher Nathan Walters said: “To be so kind and thoughtful at this young age, Mohammed is a credit to his family and his school. He is hoping to plan more events in the new year to help those in need. He really is proof that Christmas can still be a time for giving.”

With thanks to Alexandra Thompson from Featherstone High for the photos.