Free Christmas meals offered to those in need

Volunteers in a Devon town are set to deliver free Christmas meals to people who are struggling to make ends meet through a council initiative.

Buckfastleigh Town Council said it was a popular service and they already had more than 50 meals to deliver on Christmas Eve.

Council leader and Mayor of Buckfastleigh Sue Clarke said anyone who lived in the town could sign up without any judgement.

She said: "We don't means test, anybody who would like one can have one."

Clarke said: "It is a really tough job to feed your families which is really shocking in a first world developed country like ours.

"That is why there is no judgement. We are not going to ask for any kind of proof of benefits or anything."

Up until 2020 the council hosted a Christmas dinner event for the community but Clarke said there were a "number of difficulties".

She said they were "mainly getting volunteers on Christmas Day and keeping everything hot without a catering kitchen".

"Then of course we had the Covid lockdowns," Clarke added.

'Gift bags'

She said they came up with the delivery initiative and spoke with Wiltshire Farm Foods, in Ashburton, who supply the Christmas meals and puddings at a discounted price to help the community.

She said it only costs the council a "few hundred pounds".

As well as Christmas meals, Ms Clarke said they put together "gift bags" filled with local produce including Luscombe drinks, jams, and chutneys.

She added: "We also identify households with children, and we do special treats for children in the gift bags.

"It is lovely to knock on people's doors and say happy Christmas. People are happy to get them, and they are really popular."

"In Buckfastleigh we do things a bit differently to a lot of other small councils," she said.

"We give the majority of our money away and we push it back into our community to do good to provide events and activities."

The scheme is open to all Buckfastleigh Parish residents and the deadline to request a meal is midday on 13 December.