A mother-of-two has shared the benefits of Salford’s free ‘family nights’ and the impact these can have for single parent families.
Eccles library is welcoming the community to their weekly ‘family nights’, offering free food and drinks to all, in hopes to soften the blow of the current financial crisis.
Since the spike in electricity and energy bills, Eccles library has set up the sessions for the public to partake in from 5pm every Monday to Thursday.
Leanne Eluma, mother of Max, 10, and Lottie, 8, has been attending the library functions for the last two months with her children. She spoke about the impact this has had on her, and her children:
“I’m not struggling, I am a single mum, but I’m okay. This is the reason why I wanted to advertise this, because I know that there are people out there that are struggling.
“But it does help me, it’s warm. We get teas and coffees, the kids get unlimited drinks and sweets, so I think the event is really important.
“You can even take your phones to charge if you need to, and it’s all free.
“It doesn’t make you feel like you’re a charity case, and it doesn’t make you feel like they’re offering it because you can’t afford your rent, it’s just a nice atmosphere for families to attend.”
She also spoke about the importance of exposing her children to a more diverse audience, and how this impacts their development. Ms Eluma continued: “There’s a nice group of us and there’s children with ADHD, autism. It also allows for my children to understand kids, just seeing how everyone else is.”
The mother of two shared how she feels Salford’s public services are picking up where schools are not, saying: “Schools do not do enough. I think all children should get free school meals, maybe breakfast club’s, maybe extra snacks throughout the day.
“I do know children that go to school starving, I feel like schools should be offering like a warm, morning half an hour before they open, just to offer families a little extra support so the kids are warm.”
Library services all across the UK are predominantly ran on a volunteer basis, with 50,128 volunteers working in libraries recorded in 2019/2020.
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