Entertaining children and delivering food to the elderly: How these lockdown heroes are supporting a Northamptonshire village

A lockdown hero who felt like he needed to do something to help during the pandemic is running a series of initiatives to help vulnerable people and children in his village.

Kieran Gray, who is still working full time as a purchasing director, alongside his partner Leanne, have been assisting Hartwell residents in numerous ways for several weeks.

Since the lockdown was introduced in March, the pair have come up with three activities to keep children amused, as well as launching a boxed food service and hot meals for the elderly.

Kieran, who is the chairman of the community centre that is currently closed, said: “We became aware that people who must not go out were going out to get food and we have a child so we can see how difficult it is for parents.

“We saw loads of people were really struggling like older people with walking sticks walking around buying loaves of bread.

“There are millions of people who need support and the Government can’t do it all, so at a community level we needed to step in.

“I felt that we were fit and well and in a financially fair situation. If I ever found myself in a situation where I needed help, I would hope that people would help, so we wanted to help now.”

To help amuse children in the village, the couple has given out a hexagon canvas to 75 kids so that they can paint or decorate it.

The idea is that the children will then give back the hexagons and when the community centre can open once again, Keiran will hang them all on a wall and have a village BBQ to celebrate.

The children have also been given sunflower seeds to take part in an online sunflower race, as well as packets of vegetable seeds to ‘grow their own lunch’.

Kieran added: “Around 280 sunflower seeds were delivered and it’s good because children get to plant and grow the sunflowers. We’re publishing weekly results.

“Hopefully in July we will be able to go and measure them all and celebrate the winner.

“We’ve also given out vegetable seeds to encourage them to think about healthy eating and to grow salad for themselves and their families.

“It’s keeping them occupied and the sunflower race should engage them for a few months.”

Kieran has also made it his mission to help the elderly people in the village who are being advised to self isolate. He currently delivers weekly food parcels to around 60 people.

“We are going to those who can’t get out. We set up a group that assists people with collecting medicines, doing their shopping for them and just having a friendly phone conversation,” he said.

“We’ve started doing food boxes, which are really helping us as a village as it’s stopping those people from going out.

“I try to put in as much local produce as possible in the boxes because I want to support the small businesses.

“We pack the boxes every Saturday and then seven lovely volunteers drive round the village to drop them off.

“We have also been cooking hot meals like curry, lasagna and cottage pie to take to them.”

Kieran has been awarded a grant from the Northamptonshire Community Foundation, as well as donations from local residents, but is also relying on his own money.

The boxes are worth between £70 and £80 as Kieran hopes that anyone who has been furloughed or is struggling financially can be given a lifeline, so it takes a lot to keep the scheme going.

But the response from those receiving support has been incredible, according to Kieran.

“We’ve had all sorts of text messages and emails. One even said that the support we are giving could be a matter of life or death, but I think that might be a bit extreme,” he added.

“Hartwell is a fairly close knit village, there’s only 1,000 people who live here.

“We had 30 or 40 people donate bags of shopping that I have never met before - they’re just wanting to help.

“A lot of the things we are doing have drawn people closer together.”

With the new-found community spirit and closeness, Kieran hopes to host a village party when it is safe to do so, in order to bring people together again and celebrate the winners of the children’s activities.

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