Local homelessness charity, Trinity Winchester, put out a call for volunteer chefs to cover their regular cook’s holiday, and have been inundated with support from generous local companies.

Teams from Winchester City Council, Enterprise Car Hire, Amey Construction, Fat Face, First Bite, the University of Winchester, Holiday Inn and Osborne Construction all dedicated a day’s volunteering to help homeless people.

The role included preparing a hot meal, vegetarian option, and dessert for approximately 50 people, and clearing up the kitchen ready for cookery groups in the afternoon.

Hayley Shattock, Economy and Communities Support Officer from Winchester City Council said “I’d like to thank Trinity for having us to help in the kitchen. It was loads of fun as always and a really rewarding day out of the office. We look forward to coming back again!”

Lucy Tennant, Events and Community Fundraiser for Trinity said “Food is such an important part of the service that we provide at Trinity, and we serve almost 300 meals a week, some to people who otherwise would not have a hot meal in the day. Our chef works incredibly hard to prepare a hot, nutritious and varied menu, and we were lucky that with the teams of volunteers the standard stayed just as high.”

Trinity’s part time chef is back in his kitchen now, but other volunteers have been inspired to help, with more volunteering days booked for March and April.

Sue McKenna, Operations Director at Trinity, said “We are looking forward to welcoming the Chief Executive and Leader of Winchester City Council, along with a volunteer team from Skanska construction company. It has been great to welcome so many people in to Trinity to see the work that we do here – and we look forward to seeing many of the volunteers again at our Big Sleep Out this May!”