Members of the Mothers' Union in Manchester will be meeting and greeting new students, as well as providing 3000 'goodie bags' during 'Freshers' Week' from 17 to 23 September.

In a new venture for the Church of England, Mothers' Union members will base themselves at St Peter's House, the student chaplaincy in Manchester, at the heart of the University campus.

As many students will be away from home for the first time, MU members will be providing welcome packs containing the bare essentials for student life: tea, coffee, soup, pasta, rice, noodles, biscuits, toilet rolls, toothpaste, tissues.

Mary Doyle, a member of the MU team behind the idea, said: "We are providing things which these young people usually just take out of the cupboard at home without thinking about it. This is a pilot project. As there are about 10,000 new students coming to Manchester this September we can't expect to cover them all, but we hope next year to include students in Salford and Bolton."

University chaplains have welcomed the project, saying: "This is a generous and imaginative attempt to reach out to young people away from home in what can be a very disorientating first week."

Mothers' Union volunteers will also be serving soup at lunch times. They will also be using an audio-visual presentation to illustrate the many different aspects of the work of the MU and its concern for family life worldwide.