BURTON Albion Community Trust and Booker Wholesale have joined forces to support a church project that will provide a full Christmas Day dinner to vulnerable people in the town.
Billy Brewer and ex-Albion player Aaron Webster were on at hand at All Saints Church when Bookers staff arrived with all the ingredients needed to provide a three-course meal for up to 90 people.
Churches in Burton have been coming together to provide the Christmas Day Meal for more than a decade as Douglas Brown, a reader at All Saints Church, explained.
“We provide a Christmas meal for people who may need it for various reasons. It maybe loneliness, it maybe they haven’t enough money, or they just need some company on Christmas Day.
“We have a booking system and have around 60-70 people already but we know more will turn up on the day. So we are expecting around 80 people who will enjoy a full blown Christmas meal plus mince pies, coffee and a selection box to take away.
“It’s a lovely event, linked with churches throughout the town.
“We have been blessed over the years that all the food has been provided and doesn’t cost anything. We are very grateful to Bookers and Burton Albion for donating the food this year.
“It’s a fantastic, relaxed atmosphere on Christmas Day and people can come and enjoy themselves knowing there is no obligation.
“It’s the church in action, what we are here for, to help people in need.”
Keith Jackson, a bio-medical scientist at the Royal Derby Hospital, will be the head chef for the meal and admits it will be hectic.
“We have a lot of people coming to help but it’s very busy. The first year I did it there were around 30 people but it has built up.
“Timing is the key. I will be in at 8am having cooked the turkeys overnight. I will make the pigs in blankets and, while they are cooking, peel the potatoes and parsnips for roasting. When they go on, I start cooking the veg.
“I also do enough so that people can also take away food with them. I think they really appreciate it.”