Pony Club members support Thurso Community Café with donation for larder
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Caithness Pony Club members have been showing their goodwill towards the community during the coronavirus crisis.
The club donated £250 to Thurso Community Café to buy stock for a new larder which is being used as a help-yourself food bank.
As the café is unable to open at the moment, the volunteers researched the potential of a community larder which could be placed outside the premises – located at the harbour in Thurso.
Café co-manager Louise Macinnes said: "We felt a need to try and continue our support to the community through this difficult time, so got the team together and came up with some ideas."
A request was put out to find a suitable waterproof storage unit for the new service and an old American-style fridge freezer was donated by Lisa Kennedy, one of the local Pony Club mums. The branch committee then decided to help stock the larder.
A club representative said: "Caithness Pony Club has donated some money to show goodwill towards our local community while we’re in the middle of what is a time of great difficulty and hardship for many people.
"The community café has been doing some great work locally buying and delivering emergency food packages for the vulnerable, people in isolation and financial difficulty.
"This is a very worthwhile cause and good to give something back to our local community which supports us so much on an ongoing basis."
The larder is being topped up regularly for those in need to help themselves, and some members of the public have started placing their own donations in it.
Volunteers at the café have also been kept busy shopping, making soup and delivering it, along with giving sandwiches and emergency food boxes to vulnerable members of the community free of charge.
Café co-manager Ann Brock said: "At this difficult time we want to offer help and hope to everyone we can, from food to a simple chat."
Local people have stepped in to support the community café and have generously donated on its GoFundMe page.
The organisation, which is completely reliant on donations and volunteers, has been successful in receiving funding from Highland Council of £500 and Cairn Housing Association of £600 to help support the more vulnerable in the community during the pandemic.
