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Great-Great Grandma Bakes Hundreds Of Pies To Feed Hungry Children

Great-Great Grandma Bakes Hundreds Of Pies To Feed Hungry Children

Flo has been baking as many as 20 pies a day and getting up as early as 4.30am.

Lucy Devine

Lucy Devine

An elderly woman has been baking hundreds of pies to feed children who are unable to get free school meals this half-term.

Flo Osborne, 89, from Essex, has been busy baking throughout lockdown, producing as many as 20 pies a day and getting up as early as 4.30am.

The great-great-gran says she loves to help others, and is supporting footballer Marcus Rashford's campaign to end child poverty in the UK.

"I saw it on the news and I thought, that's lovely," said Flo.

"I have been baking pies throughout lockdown to help vulnerable people in the community, and I love doing it. It keeps me going, and gives me something to do.

"But I thought, I would love to help the little ones, too. I've even been thinking about baking miniature pies for the children.

"Some people say I'm mad, but I just tell them that I love to help other people. If I can help them, I will."

Flo pays for all the ingredients out of her own pocket, and is such a talented baker, she doesn't need to follow any recipe!

She said: "People always ask me for my recipe, or ask me what my secret is. But there's no secret, it's just comes naturally.

Flo gets up at 4.30am (
SWNS)

"I just mix the pastry up the way I want it to. I know what it should feel like so I go with that."

Her most popular pie is cherry, but she also loves to bake apple and savoury options such as steak.

Flo's son Graham Osborne, 58 said: "I've always been proud of her. She's great, and she's been doing amazing.

"I grew up with her baking, so I think I kind of took it for granted. But I think what she's been doing is brilliant, it's really excellent.

"Even now, at almost 90, if I turned around to her and said, 'Do you think you could bake 20 pies today?', she wouldn't flinch.

"She says it gives her something to do during the day, and gives her a reason to get up in the morning.

"She's very caring. If she thinks she can do something for someone, she will."

Flo has been baking pies throughout lockdown (
SWNS)

Flo first started rustling up the pies back in April, when she was approached by firefighter Les Nicoll for help with his community campaign, North Essex Support Team (NEST).

Les, 69, set up the support group at the start of lockdown to help look out for the elderly and vulnerable around Harwich, who were isolating and unable to leave their homes.

Les said: "We love Flo. She's an absolute dream, she's amazing. We have lots of people who send us cheesecakes or cupcakes to help us out with our food deliveries - but none of them are 89. She's definitely our oldest baker.

"We probably get about 20 pies from Flo every fortnight, and each of them make about 16 servings. But she'll always make extra pies so that our volunteers can enjoy them, too."

Thank goodness for people like Flo! These pies look so delicious...

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

Topics: Life News