Scouts in Harborough make survival bags for homeless people – out of empty crisp packets

Scouts in Market Harborough are hard at work making survival bags for homeless people – out of empty crisp packets.

Up to about 40 scouts of the 3rd Market Harborough Scout Group have already piled up over 150 crisp bags as they pull out all the stops to support street sleepers.

And they are appealing to anyone who can help them in their noble quest to get in touch straight away as the winter starts to bite and temperatures plunge.

Jackie Taylor, 42, who leads the Farndon Road-based group’s Provins Troop, said: “We are setting out to get behind homeless people – and we are boosting our environment as well.

“So this is a total win win situation.

“I’ve got 20 scouts in my section and we’ve got 35-40 altogether.

“And they are really enthusiastic about the whole scheme – they’ve been raring to go.

“Two years ago we did a project on homelessness and the kids thoroughly enjoyed doing it,” said Jackie, whose son Oliver, 11, is in her troop while her daughter Amelia, seven, is poised to move up to the cubs.

“So I decided that this time we’d back a national crisp packet recycling initiative.

“We wash the empty crisp bags and then iron them, fusing them together.

“It takes about 75 packets to make a survival bag and we must have over 150 now,” said the delighted mum-of-two, whose scouts are aged from 10 and a half to 14.

“The scouts have been bringing them in, my sister runs a pub and has been collecting them and our town’s Lidl store has been donating plastic packaging.

“We’ll hand the survival bags over to a couple of local charities to give to people who are living out on the street as we head into winter.

“We are also having a sleep-out in cardboard boxes over the weekend of December 4 at a local village hall.

“I’ll be there with our scouts and it will give us some insight into how homeless people sleep rough night in night out,” said Jackie, who’s helped to run the group for about three years.

She said they are also collecting food to help Market Harborough’s Jubilee Foodbank feed struggling local people too.

“They do a fantastic job in our community and we want to support them all we can,” said Jackie, who lives near her scout headquarters.

If you would like to provide empty crisp packets to Jackie’s scout group or support them in any other way you can contact her at:[email protected]