Donna Stealey and Kevin Cawley fight poverty with 'Attila the Nun' in BBC documentary

Donna Stealey and Kevin Cawley at the Community Centre

Donna Stealey and Kevin Cawley, students from Hopwood Hall College, have featured in the BBC documentary ‘Sister Rita to the Rescue’.

Donna and Kevin feature in the second season of the programme, which follows local nun Rita Lee in her crusade against poverty.

The show, which airs at 9:15am every morning this week on BBC1, features the two students offering physical assistance and development advice on the fresh food project.

The aim is to ensure the poorest members of Greater Manchester’s communities have access to fresh produce through the food bank run by the Lalley Community Centre.

The two students have supported Rita by lending their horticultural expertise to the development and long term maintenance of the allotment, as well as advising on what produce to grow each season.

Donna and Kevin came to project after visiting the food bank themselves.

They said: “We first became involved with the project after using the food bank to help provide for our own family.

“Soon after we became involved in the project to grow fresh produce for the food bank itself, contributing to the building and maintenance of allotment with the knowledge we have gained from our Horticulture course at the college.

“It feels so good to be able to give back to the Lalley Community Centre team after they helped us out when we were in need. It is a very fulfilling project to be involved in as the centre gives so much to the surrounding communities.”

Donna and Kevin have continued to support the centre since filming finished, maintaining the allotment as well as engaging with community members to try and promote healthy eating and home grown foods.

Andrew Oldham, who lectures the couple on their Level 1 Diploma in Horticulture at Hopwood Hall College, said: “The great thing about learning horticulture is that it is finding new ways into the very fabric of our communities. Donna and Kev are proof of this, they are taking their learning into the community they live in, to empower those people living there to produce their own food and to share their knowledge.

“I am very proud of the achievements of these two students, how they have worked hard and diligently to change not just the way they learn, but how they apply that learning to benefit others.”

The final episode of the documentary airs on the 4 November 2016.