A CHARITY providing Christmas dinners to families in need has been taken aback by the community’s generosity.
The Bovey Tracey Community Kitchen works all year round providing ready meals for people across the Teignbridge area, and the festive period brings its own demands.
As well as delivering meals to their regular clients the hub tries to bring a little Christmas cheer to those who really need it – families living on a very tight budget, the elderly and vulnerable living on their own, or patients discharged from hospital who can’t fend for themselves.
So this Christmas Eve they’ll be distributing Christmas hampers of food to more than 100 families.
Containing dried goods, tinned hams, frozen food, fresh fruit and veg, puds and biscuits – and the all important joint of meat or bird, it contains all the ingredients for a Christmas lunch.
The charity relies on its regular donations left by shoppers in Bovey Tracey’s Spar and Tesco convenience stores, and has been boosted by cash donations which have been used to purchase essential items and provide assistance to families facing rising fuel bills.
Among the donor have been Noon Roberts estate agents who gave £100 after their Christmas party was cancelled, £500 from the town council and more than £500 in donations from pensioners passing on un-needed winter fuel allowances.
Team supervisor Sophia Newman said: ‘I picked up a huge donation of Dexter cattle beef joints donated by Beardon Farm in Higher Ashton – my car boot was heaving!’
The team have also been busy creating emergency hampers for families, a service which is on the rise.
Kitchen co-founder Stella West-Harling said: ‘The people of Bovey have been fantastic and so generous. We couldn’t continue without their donations, dropping food off at the stores and coming in with money and goods.’
She added: ‘If any families in the Bovey Tracey and Ashburton area need emergency help they can call 01626 836899.’
Donations of money and goods can be left in person at the kitchen HQ in Fore Street, Bovey Tracey, Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm. The charity also has a donate button on its website www.communitykitchenhub.org.uk.