St Andrew’s Church is an outward focused church that holds lots of events and groups to benefit the local community. This includes a lunch club for the elderly, a family support group for struggling mothers, and a toddler group. They also hold a Christmas Day lunch for those who would otherwise be on their own. All of these groups and events require the use of the church’s large dual fuel cooker.
This Christmas, their lunch was at risk of being ruined due to problems with the cooker.
Lydia Cook, who is the Church Manager said:
We were in desperate need of a new cooker to replace the one that has served our needs well for many years. We have had the cooker repaired and looked at by different engineers on many occasions, but the problems are never resolved, making using the cooker effectively very difficult.
The lady who cooks for our weekly lunch club struggles through each week, but we were very aware that our Christmas Day lunch was fast approaching, where we cater for people from our community who would otherwise be on their own. We were concerned it would be stressful for the team of volunteers to cook for a large number of people using an ineffective cooker.
Due to the timing of the appeal, there were no suitable Heart of Bucks funds that St Andrew’s could apply to, as the deadlines had either passed or would be too late to get the cooker in time.
It is with a huge thanks to one of our fund-holders that a replacement cooker was able to be ordered for the church in time for their Christmas lunch.
Heather who used the cooker for the Lunch Club Christmas lunch said:
It was so fantastic having the new cooker in time for our lunch club Christmas lunch. We were able to provide a full Christmas dinner for 50 people without stress. It was great to have so many rings on the top, and two ovens that were versatile and could be set to different temperatures.