Feed East Renfrewshire Now faced a huge shortfall until they were contacted by the Birk family, who run The Malletsheugh in Newton Mearns, offering to help out.
Bobby from The Malletsheugh and Dawn from the local food bank. (Image: Supplied )
The owners of an award-winning Indian restaurant near Glasgow stepped in to help a local food bank provide over 350 Christmas dinners to 75 families.
FERN – Feed East Renfrewshire Now – is a local food bank run by Dawn Murray and Rachel Egglestone. They have been working flat out to pull in as many donations as possible to meet unprecedented need in the area.
But they faced a huge shortfall until they were contacted by the Birk family who run The Malletsheugh in Newton Mearns. Originally the Birks suggested they could donate, prepare and cook 50 or more Christmas dinners for the charity to distribute, so people could reheat on the day.
But operations manager Dawn explained they’d already bought lots of frozen chickens – so asked the family to donate some of the vegetables they’d need instead. The Birks ordered the entire list of produce costing around £600, to ensure FERN could deliver full fresh Christmas dinner ingredient packages to 75 families in Glasgow.
Dawn said: “We had a hectic day yesterday (December 23) thanks to the Birks – we were able to give out 75 Christmas dinner packs, all with fresh potatoes, carrots, parsnips and brussels sprouts as well as 60 soup packs with lentils, stock cubes, carrots and onions.
“The Malletsheugh donated all the fresh veg which they ordered in specially for us, it wasn’t stuff they had in stock – Bobby had it delivered as late as he could from their supplier so it would be as fresh as possible.
“This donation made a huge difference to us this year. We feed over 350 people and they all received a healthy, nutritious and appetising meal along with their usual food parcel, helping to make it a more enjoyable Christmas for everyone.
“There’s a knock-on too – having the fresh vegetables has allowed us to keep our tinned stock available for the coming month, stretching out our supplies.
Rachel, Dawn and the team at FERN.
“We would love to be in a position to provide more fresh produce so this donation felt extra special – especially at a time of year when everyone is so busy.
“Our requests for assistance have increased dramatically this year, particularly in the last six weeks as the weather has got colder and families are feeling the strain of the increased cost of living. Many of our clients said if it wasn’t for the foodbank they wouldn’t have had a Christmas dinner at all.
“We have been very lucky to receive several donations from the local community this year – the Glasgow Clan ice hockey ran a food drive for us which brought two carloads of tinned food, tea, coffee, treats and toiletries.
“But the Christmas dinner itself is an important thing, it’s a memory maker which means a lot to families, and not being able to provide it really cuts deep for parents.
“We really have found it is a struggle to keep up with the demand at times so having a local business like The Malletsheugh get in touch out of the blue wanting to support us is a godsend.
“Have a lovely Christmas and thank you so much for supporting FERN, we truly appreciate your support and kindness.
“We have already had feedback from clients thanking us because the food packs are of such high quality this Christmas – that makes it all worthwhile.”
The restaurant ordered vegetables for the Christmas dinners.
The Malletsheugh is known for award-winning Indian food and service, but has run a series of events and campaigns for charity and the community in the two years it’s been open, as well as making donations themselves to local causes.
Bobby Birk said: “It’s really important to us to be part of the community and help where we can. The people of Renfrewshire really embraced us and welcomed us when we opened up two years ago and we always want to show how much we appreciate that.
“Both at The Malletsheugh and our new restaurant The Osprey in East Kilbride, we will always try to help where we can when we hear local people are in need.
“The work FERN do all year round is simply incredible so we wanted to offer some nice fresh cooked Christmas dinners for families to enjoy.
“Of course when they told us donating the produce for them to deliver was better, that was what we would do – it’s not about us or what we want, it’s what charities need.
“We were all really happy to be able to help out and have the veg they wanted ready for Dawn and her team to make sure lots of families can have a healthy Christmas dinner and make nice memories.
“We’re always here to help those who need it in our local area and we have a few ideas for next year to step that up a bit.
“The support we have had from the community is something we will never take for granted – and we will always do our best to repay that welcome.
“From our family to yours, Merry Christmas.”
If you’d like to help FERN or find out more about what they do, go to their Facebook page here.