A big thank you to our caring colleague Kathleen Flynn who's been cooking about 100 meals a week for vulnerable people in her community.
Kathleen, who's worked at our Hamilton store for 21 years, prepares meals for a dozen elderly residents in the local area in her spare time – making sure they get a hot meal every day.
Neighbours, friends and colleagues have rallied round to pay for the ingredients and also a number of online fundraising events have been held during the lockdown too.
Kathleen said: "I always cook meals for my mum and my aunt who are in their 80s and in the first weekend of lockdown a carer in our community asked if I could possibly cook for a client who was struggling to get out and only had one tin of soup in the house."
And as word spread in the neighbourhood, Kathleen's community kitchen snowballed!
She said: "I now cook every weekend and we put out about 100 meals on a Sunday for all the old people who can't get out and about are struggling. The meals will last them all week. They don't pay a penny, everything is donated by people in the community. Singing couple Joel Mclean have even raised £600 for us.
"I start on a Saturday afternoon and have three pots on the go all and then on a Sunday morning I get up and do all the veggies. I do homemade soups and things like curry, lasagne, macaroni and chicken casserole. They get a good selection. They get a three-course meal sometimes if we've got enough to buy jelly and custard too. They love it ... they don't want it to end!
"I tend to finish about 3.30pm on a Sunday afternoon and open the wine, and then me and my husband Owen get a takeaway – usually an Indian! I do all the cooking and my neighbours come and collect and deliver. My husband delivers some too ... as he can't cook.
"My colleagues and management at work have been great; they've been donating money and food especially dried goods and containers for the food too. Everyone at Asda is behind it."
Asda Hamilton store manager Scott Gregor said the whole store was proud of Kathleen. He said: "It's such a fantastic thing that she's been doing – she's such a kind-hearted person."
