The charitable duo serving up hot meals to Freckleton families in need

After spending lockdown volunteering at the Lower Lane community centre food bank, Diane Ireland said that many Freckleton families in poverty are "isolated and forgotten".

And with chef pal Jayne Pimbley, the pair are using fresh produce and donations to serve up a range of hot meals to families with children in need on Saturday, January 23.

The decision follows the recent news surrounding free school meal parcels, in which parents across the UK received inadequate amounts of food to prepare a week of lunches for their little ones.

United Utilities project manager Diane said: "For the past few months I have been volunteering at Lower Lane and noticed they do struggle. I have been buying fresh meat, veg and other produce with donated money.

"During lockdown me and Jayne became closer and I realised how good the food is that she cooks. We got talking about the difficulty many families are facing, especially when being able to feed their children, and she said that she could prepare hot and nutritious food for less.

"We then both decided that she was going to come down to Lower Lane on the weekend and distribute hot meals alongside their food bank on the same day.

"If it is successful we hope to make it more frequent and we want to get the word out there that we are here to give healthy and hot food to families who need it."

Chef Jayne will spend Friday cooking a range of hot meals, many of which are created with contributed produce, that will then be served to families in donated takeaway cartons.

The food bank has had a £50 cash donation towards meat alongside five kilograms of chicken fillets, which will be used to make chicken nuggets.

Jayne Pimbley also runs Pegram's Pantry, and this week has been cooking meals to raise money for food for this weekend's hot meals.

Diane added: "At the moment, there are a lot of donations coming in and people are extremely generous, but there are also a lot more families who are struggling with food, paying their rent and heating their homes.

"I have noticed that people are being furloughed from already low-paid jobs, which means so many families are really struggling and we both just really want to try and help.

"Some people are too ashamed to ask for help and they would rather try and battle on and not tell anybody. The first time I volunteered at the Lower Lane food bank, I noticed the people there are without hope. They feel as if they are forgotten.

"If you don't have hope, you don't have anything."

Families in need can visit the Lower Lane community centre, Freckleton, from 9:30 am until 1:30pm.

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