An eight-year-old girl from Blackheath has cooked up 500 meatballs after she was inspired by Marcus Rashford to help feed her local community.

Leila Miah, from Deptford, donated 100 hot meals to the Evelyn Community Store in Lewisham, an organisation that aims to tackle local food poverty, and has even raised over £1,000 for the charity.

And the Blackheath High School pupil managed it all in just a day.

Eight-year-old Leila said she was inspired by Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign and wanted to play her part in helping food the community during lockdown.

After choosing her favourite meal of meatballs and rigatoni, courtesy of an Italian recipe book she received for Christmas, Leila woke up at 5am, cooking for eight hours straight to complete the meals.

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Leila said: "I have been following the efforts of Marcus Rashford and I know he visited local charities who give out food to children and their families.

"I am lucky as I have nice food to eat but I know there are some children who do not always have hot food during lockdown so I wanted to share my cooking with them."

She said the best part of the project was delivering the meatballs to the community store, adding that she was also looking forward to going back and giving out food bags when it's safe.

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In total, the cook took 500 meatballs, 30 tins of tomatoes and 15kg of pasta, resulting in 100 hot, home-cooked meals.

The meals were donated to the Evelyn Community Store in Deptford, which is run by local residents who provide food to families in the area via food charity Fareshare, similar to a food bank.

Sarah Skevington, head of juniors at Blackheath High School, said they were "extremely proud" of Leila and her achievements.

"Not only did she cook for a whole day, but she also raised a fantastic sum of money to help her local community in the process.

“Throughout the pandemic we have been humbled by the efforts our pupils have made to support their communities, the NHS and our key workers. They’ve captured the Blackheath High spirit, taking initiative and going above and beyond to help others.”

Dawn Atkinson Evelyn Community Store volunteer and Mayoress of Lewisham said: "When we at Evelyn Community Store were first approached by Lelia and her mum about making something for our members, we thought it might be cookies or cakes.

“When we realised Leila was planning to make a meatball meal, we were totally taken back. Then we also found out that Leila had also designed and set up a JustGiving page for the Store, we were totally amazed.

"For a young person to be so committed to wanting to help her local community is inspirational.”

The eight-year-old star raised a total of £1,000 for the organisation, double her original target.