Totnes resident Jo Yeo made it clear that she didn’t want this article to be about her.

Nonetheless she founded Food For Children Totnes, a Community of Interest Company in January last year to provide school holiday meal kits to low-income families with children who attend local schools.

At first it was an experiment but she found it fulfilled a real need so registered it as a CIC at the end of June.

Jo said: “The difference between a CIC and a charity is that CICs are not-for-profit. It’s also simpler as you don’t need a board of directors like you do with a charity.”

At the moment 91 children benefit from St John’s and The Grove Primary Schools and she has contacted the other primaries along with the Daisy Nursery. The next step is to expand to schools such as Berry Pomeroy, Marldon, Dartington and Bidwell Brook.

Since it began 102 families with 215 children have been provided with 2,102 meals including breakfast every day during the holidays.

The referrals are via schools in Totnes and they never know the names of those receiving the meals.

Jo told us: “There was already a similar scheme running in Torbay but not around Totnes so I decided to give it a go.”

At the moment Devon County Council provides a £15 meal voucher for every child from a family earning less than £7,500 per year.

The way it works to help out is that in December the child receives the February voucher in advance to help out with the cost of Christmas, likewise in April they get the May voucher to help out with Easter expenses but this means that in February and May they receive no vouchers so are likely to run short which is where Food For Children Totnes can come in very handy.

Jo said: “I saw a need for this in Totnes. I had needed food banks and help myself in the past and I wanted to see what I could do.’’

Alongside her own company Jo helps out with Food in the Community based in Ashprington which provides a community food box scheme which also supplies a network of charity partners as well as Save Food Waste.

Jo explained: “I’d like to expand eventually into small neighbouring villages with a single school such as Harbertonford and Ashprington but I run everything out of my garage which is pretty full so if anyone has some free storage space available locally, I’d be very grateful.”

Jo has a small team of helpers: “There’s my husband Tony O who does the collections, Suzy who organises the marketing and managed to persuade a local printer to run off 100 leaflets free. A couple of my friends help out when they can but are not always available.”

There are other schemes and sources of help such as the Totnes Community Champion run by Morrisons and Stepping Stones Food Bank, based at St John’s Church.

Jo has lived in big cities such as Plymouth but much prefers Totnes saying: “People here accept you for who you are.”

If you would like to volunteer for Food For Children, make a donation of store cupboard foods or money contact [email protected] or call 07816 867583