Students cook hot food for families as charity hits 26,000 milestone by delivering cooked meals to needy families in Inverness and Easter Ross area over the past 10 years
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More than 26,000 meals have been provided for local families in need over the last 10 years by Inverness-based good cause Food For Families.
It has now swung into action for its 11th winter, with professional cookery students at Inverness College UHI preparing the first batch of hot food for distribution.
Inverness businessman David Sutherland, who founded Food For Families with his wife Anne, was there to thank lecturer Saurav Kumar and his students as they began their weekly provision of meals for this winter’s campaign.
He said: “It’s a great pity that there is still such demand for our services from families in need.
“The pandemic has also hit incomes and we’re enormously grateful to our network of volunteers for their response.”
He said that distributing a warming meal in winter was both a challenge and a privilege, with schools, social workers and community centres, helping to identify those who needed their help.
“Saurav and his team of students deserve our gratitude as the college’s involvement is critical to our cooking effort,” he added.
Mr Kumar said: “This is the fifth year in a row we’ve supported this wonderful project and our students are always incredibly humbled to hear about the difference their contribution makes to families in need.
“It’s not only a great way for us to help address local hardship and give back to our communities, it’s also a great learning experience for these students, who haven’t cooked 100 meals at a time before.”
Mr and Mrs Sutherland have been providing the meat for 2000 portions of mince each year since Food For Families was launched.
Inverness restaurant owner Catriona Cameron and Williamson Foodservice are also providing fresh produce for the dishes.
Project manager Alex Gilchrist said: “With Covid-19 keeping more people at home, the ability to have a hot meal is important to parents and children alike.
“We hit 15,000 meals in the winter of 2016-17 and we added over 11,000 more by last winter – without ever taking a penny from the public purse.
“The new campaign is challenging but our cooks and delivery people do a magnificent job in preventing families in the Inverness area from going hungry.”
Ms Gilchrist added that there was a need for donations of food, particularly tinned goods, to enable the Food For Families team to provide as many nutritious meals as possible in the winter chill.
Food For Families delivers the cooked meals to feed needy households mainly in the Inverness and Easter Ross areas with 60 to 70 volunteers involved.
