Ten thousand meals and counting for Kettering's 'Corona Kitchen' volunteers

A group of volunteers who joined forces to ensure nobody in Kettering went hungry during the Covid crisis have now served up more than 10,000 meals.

'Corona Kitchen' was set up in March to plug the gap left when the lockdown forced the closure of soup kitchens and places where those in need could get help.

Handing out hot meals and sandwiches from outside the Eden Centre in Montagu Street, they were soon giving away almost 100 bags of food a day.

And this week they hit a huge milestone - handing out their 10,000th meal package.

Organiser Frank Rodgers, 64, said: "When we started out we would never have believed we would have got to this number.

"It feels very good to be able to feed families in the crisis."

Volunteers will soon be splitting into two teams to share the work on a week on, week off basis.

They have averaged about 90 meals a day and on Tuesday hit a record by handing out 127 meals. Each meal includes a portion of hot food, a sandwich, a drink, crisps and a cake.

The volunteers successfully applied for grants from the Northamptonshire Community Foundation and the National Lottery Community fund.

They've had so much food donated since they started they've managed to keep the average cost of each food package down to just 78p.

Most days Kings Cliffe Bakery give them bread with food donations from Tesco in London Road, Morrisons in Kettering and wholesalers Booker.

Morrisons in Northampton also donated 1,500 takeaway boxes and the volunteers receive 150kg of food every week through the Fareshare scheme.

Frank, who owns wheelchair wheel cover firm SpokeGuards, thanked everyone for their help throughout the pandemic.

Corona Kitchen will continue until at least Christmas because of the current Government restrictions, with only one of Kettering's traditional soup kitchens still open.

Frank said: "I don't think we can see an end to the Covid crisis yet.

"As long as we can continue to get funding, we'll carry on."

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