A BOOKSHOP has partnered with a health and wellbeing charity to donate books with food packages to the community.

DRAKE, a Stockton-based award-winning bookshop, has partnered with Little Sprouts, a health and wellbeing charity in Yarm, to help the community in Thornaby and surrounding areas where families without gardens are "crawling the walls", while also offering virtual book clubs for all ages.

DRAKE co-owner Melanie Greenwood wanted to put some of her "new found spare time to more good use than usual" and, having previously collaborated with award-winning charity Little Sprouts, offered to help at one a food drop in site

Ms Greenwood said: “A lot of the families I met don’t have any outside space and are just understandably crawling the walls.

"Clearly the food parcels are making a big difference, but I thought it would be great to have something for the kids to do as well.”

The businesswoman got in touch with some children’s book publishers that work with DRAKE and asked for donations, whether activity books, picture books or novels.

Simon & Schuster, Walker Books and Bounce Publishing responded to the request, giving "a rainbow of books are about to brighten the day of countless homes in the area".

Ms Greenwood added: “We were thrilled with the response.

"I was hoping we might get a handful of books, but the reps have been amazing. We would like to give a special shout out to Nicola, Jan and Stockton woman Louise for their amazing support.

“Yes, it’s great being a bookshop, but it’s even better to be part of the community and to be able to give some of the families who are really struggling something to keep them entertained. It's great."

DRAKE has been keeping in touch with the North-East through its Lockdown Pharmacy delivery service, whereby the recipient gets a surprise book tailored to their reading preference.

Little Sprouts has been running food drop ins at a range of locations across Teesside since March 23 and has had support from several local businesses such as The Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe, Yarm Rugby Club and Sunflour Vegan bakery.

Charity manager and co founder Debbie Fixter said: “Food is essential and we have been privileged to play our part in helping families, however the reality of having the children home from school has brought its own problems.

"Often there are multiple children per family without the luxury of electronic devices and WiFi, the books and activity sets that Melanie has provided have been a lifeline to these families and have helped keep children entertained."

Ms Fixter, with charity co-founder Neta Kaur-Brown and via their mobile kitchen, runs cooking and food education projects are designed to inspire people to make better food choices through practical, innovative and fun cooking workshops aimed at all ages and abilities.

DRAKE, a four-year-old family-run business, has also taken its monthly events online and hosted virtual book clubs for children, teens and adults.