CHILDREN were treated to a visit from glamorous princesses at a charity event in Halstead.

Last Saturday, customers queued down the street to have a meet and greet session with princesses Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel at Costa Coffee in High Street.

The aim of the day was to raise money for the Costa Foundation, an independent charity that works to relieve poverty in coffee growing communities.

Manager Natisha Chatten, who has been at the franchise for around 18 months, said: "We raised £140 for the Costa Foundation, which helps the aid the building of schools in countries that we get our coffee from and it helps the children of coffee farmers.

"We had a lot of people come along, about 300 and we had a queue right around to Boots.

"I used to work with a couple of the girls from Princess Appearances at a clothes shop so that's where the idea came from.

"It was a meet and greet so they were saying hello to the children and keeping them thinking they were the real deal.

"We were also giving out balloons and my friend was here doing glitter face painting and things.

"We do a lot of the organising for these things ourselves because we're a franchise and own a lot of stores in quieter towns like Halstead and were told that we were never going to be a million pound store so we try and raise as much money for charity as possible."

The Costa Foundation has so far supported 41 school projects in eight countries around the world.

Children are now able to benefit from funded facilities in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Vietnam and Uganda.