A Burns supper served up by local volunteers went down a treat with around 70 residents living in the Thurso and Castletown communities.

Dished out on Tuesday this week, it is just one of the many things volunteers with the Thurso Community Development Trust (TCDT) have been busy organising during the latest Covid-19 restrictions.

"The Burns supper went really well," said development manager Joan Lawrie. "There were lots of happy people. We delivered about 70 Burns suppers, including Castletown where we work in partnership with Christine Stone."

She explained that while the trust had been building up the number of people they are supporting, they were currently not as busy as the last lockdown.

"We still have plenty of enthusiastic volunteers and are back to doing a meals service but just once a week on a Tuesday and have around 60 meals going out," she said. "We were quite excited to deliver a Burns supper to folks this Tuesday. Adding an activity and a quiz gives something a bit different to pass the time."

The trust plan to continue the meals through February and are looking into doing a permanent service for the whole of Caithness. However, before they could go ahead with that they would need to wait until refurbishments are carried out at the Thurso Youth Club where they do the cooking.

"There is definitely a need in the community," said Ms Lawrie. "They really enjoy their meals. We had such amazing feedback from the Christmas meal.

"Some of the people we have supported have been indoors since March last year. One of the main issues is that the day care centres cannot open up yet."

The TCDT development manager owes the success of the meals to Linda Moran, a former school dinner lady, who coordinates the service. "We would be lost without her," she said.

Those receiving meals also get a newsletter letting them know about other things going on in the town and also allows people to put a face to those within the group.

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A new Sharing Shed, situated at the youth club, has been getting increasingly busy and the welcome addition of a fridge and freezer by the end of February will help with storage.

The main deliveries of food come from Cfine, who redistribute surplus food via FareShare. They deliver around two tonnes of food per month which includes tinned and dried products. Surplus food is also collected from Tesco at least twice a week so there is a supply of fresh items.

Ms Lawrie explained: "The purpose is to try and reduce food waste. We also have lots of information leaflets available in the shed."

Toiletries, included sanitary products, are in demand and the trust had been buying these themselves but will be unable to continue doing this so they are keen to get donations.

"We do not want people just dropping things off," she pointed out. "We are asking anybody with toiletries to put them in a box down at the Youth Club on a Tuesday morning. We will then quarantine them."

TCDT volunteers, of which there are between 30 and 40, are also kept busy responding to calls from residents needing prescriptions collected or shopping picked up.

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