Bookings being taken for Thurso community Christmas meal home deliveries
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Volunteers in Thurso will be helping to spread a little festive cheer by delivering Christmas meals to those in need of a little extra help this year.
Thurso’s Community Christmas which brings people together in the area, who would not normally be expecting visitors, has suffered a major setback due to Covid-19 restrictions.
However, Thurso Community Development Trust (TCDT) is working on two initiatives to bring a Christmas meal to those in need of some additional assistance.
TCDT development manager, Joan Lawrie said: “As an organisation we’ve had a really fantastic year in the number of people in the community we have been able to help.
"We’ve also worked very hard and we can’t thank the volunteers who have assisted us throughout the year enough. Not being able to stage the Thurso Community Christmas as we usually do was a real blow – the hardest part of this year.
"But we have worked hard at coming up with a solution and are really excited to be delivering the Thurso Community Christmas to your door. The meal is aimed at those who might not be expecting visitors or might struggle to cook Christmas dinner this year for various reasons."
She pointed out: "Under our community support we provided hot meals and continue to do so with our monthly Lunch Club and are delighted that many of those community members have already booked in for their Christmas Meal but we have space for a few more.
"For those wishing to book for a meal to be delivered to them on Christmas Day all they need do is contact us on 01847 867050 for a
booking form or email community@thursocdt.co.uk – we also welcome bookings from friends or relatives on other people’s behalf.”
The first initiative is the regular Thurso Community Christmas meal which staff and board members of the trust have been involved in now for four years. Originally run by Pay it Forward Thurso, the trust took this over last year.
While people cannot be brought together to celebrate, instead volunteers, staff and board members will be delivering a hot three-course meal on Christmas Day throughout the town.
The doorstep delivery will include a bake box, and a Christmas quiz, while for those who are able to digitally connect a virtual quiz will be provided with an online get together later in the afternoon.
The second initiative is aimed at families and will involve the delivery of a Christmas meal box on December 23.
“We realised when we were putting together plans for the Christmas Day meal that there might be a number of families who are struggling this year due to the impact of Covid-19," explained the development manager.
"Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity in the hot meal delivery to offer meals to families but we wanted to have a scheme to ease the pressure so we came up with the idea of offering Christmas meal boxes with the ingredients to cook your own meal.”
The scheme has been supported by the Highland Council Covid-19 Resilience Fund and will offer a food box with a joint of meat, vegetables, along with frozen, tinned and dried foods with some additional treats which will help with the preparation of a festive dinner and ease the pressure this year for families.
A limited number of boxes are available and people are advised to book in as soon as possible. A short booking form is available on the trust website: http://www.thursocdt.co.uk then follow the link for Thurso Community Christmas or call 01847 867050.
