Community joins forces for fabulous Christmas

A community Christmas made the festive season special in Okehampton, writes Sarah Pitt

Okehampton Community Kitchen – a foodbank run by Rebecca Green and volunteers – spearheaded festive cheer for the second year running.

With help from many businesses and individuals, among them the town’s three supermarkets, the community kitchen was able to redistribute no less than three tonnes of food . Some of this went into food parcels allowing people to prepare Christmas Dinner at home.

Then came a community gathering for Christmas dinner at the Eco Hub on Christmas Day, which Rebecca described as “an insane but lovely day of community teamwork”.

The fun continued on Boxing Day at the Eco Hub, with bubble and squeak, a community lunch and bingo and treats with everyone who came along.

And on Christmas Day evening, Ma’ida Indian restaurant provided a treat for Rebecca and all her regular foodbank customers, a free takeaway. “People were so excited because it was a proper curry house curry,” she said.

The day was made possible by the community. Rebecca was in the foyer at Lidl on the Saturday before Christmas, collecting donation. She also signed up seven further people to come along the two-day Christmas celebration at the Eco Hub.

She said: “Waitrose donated turkey along with a private turkey farm lady called Angela and we had an enormous amount of support from the community bringing in food. Somebody made Christmas cakes, someone else made mince pies. Every aspect of the day came from the community.”

Christmas Eve packs were provided by Saylan Forest Gnomes Bakery, while sausages came from a local farm, Dutchford Farm and Okehampton’s Well-being Cafe staff sorted and peeled the sprouts for the big day.

Rebecca said there were lots of reasons why people came along to the community celebration.

“It wasn’t necessarily [just] people who are on their own. We had a couple come in because they wanted to share Christmas Day with the community rather than just the two of them. We had volunteers come and collect people who were in temporary accommodation, the Travelodge on the edge of town. The only reason we are able to find all these people is because the community is working together, putting us in touch with them.

“Without that we wouldn’t have anyone to serve. It is all about the community.”

She added that “all sorts of people use our foodbank, people from different backgrounds”.

She said she planned to hold a regular monthly outreach session on a Saturday morning, to allow her make contact with more people who could benefit from the help of the Okehampton Community Kitchen, but would not necessarily be referred through the normal channels.