A GREENOCK mum is putting together Christmas parcels so that hard-pressed families can have a fabulous festive season.

Ruth Miller, 45, started the venture last year and the kind Inverclyde community quickly got behind it.

Ruth managed to give 60 families Christmas dinner and this year she is aiming to help even more people.

Ruth said: “I heard that the foodbank were offering people food and doing what they could to help people at Christmas.

“But I watched television and kept seeing adverts where the table was full of food with a turkey and lots of treats and decided I wanted to help people locally have that.”

Ruth was soon inundated with donations of food and had so much she was struggling to store it until Greenock Wanderers rugby club stepped in and offered to keep the donated items for her.

Now Ruth is looking for the community to rally once again to help make Christmas special for local families.

She said: “There is no criteria specifying who I help.

"I asked people who were struggling to get in touch with me privately through social media.

“I added their names to my list and ensured we were able to drop off food for them.

"Poverty impacts everyone - I don’t need proof, just a private message and I will do what I can to help.”

Ruth, along with the help of family, friends and her colleagues from the Homebase store Greenock, will put together all the food parcels and ensure they are delivered in time for Christmas.

Ruth said: “Last year people were unbelievable grateful, they were so overwhelmed by the generosity of local people at what is already an expensive time of year.

“I was overwhelmed myself, everyone was so kind and I shed a tear when I saw the families receive the donations.”

Ruth already has a list of 37 families for this year and she is expecting the number to increase.

Her workplace Homebase have donated an illuminated cool box as a fundraising raffle prize and staff and customers visiting the Greenock store are able to join in for £1 per ticket, with the money going to buy the food for the parcels.

Ruth has also organised for a bag packing event to take place in Tesco Port Glasgow on November 18 at 10am and is looking for people who can spare a few hours to head along and help.

Ruth said: “The community have been absolutely unbelievable.

"People are so generous and the businesses have been a great help.

“I would like to thank Tesco, Homebase, Greenock Wanderers, REACH for Autism, Duncan MacKenzie’s Butchers and everyone else who has helped in any way to make this a success.

“I would love to do this every year but I do need the support of the community to make it work."

Anyone who can donate an item, help out at the bag pack or has a freezer Ruth could use for storage is asked to get in touch with her by emailing kytana@hotmail.co.uk