A major community project to feed struggling households in Honiton is appealing for help.
The initiative, dubbed Project Food, has grown from work that was done to provide food for people whose lives had been hit hard by the corona virus pandemic.
It is born out of an idea by Sharon Thorne, the deputy manager of the Honiton-based TRIP community transport organisation, which works to reduce rural isolation and loneliness in East Devon.
Sharon told the Herald: "At Christmas we identified that a lot of people would be on their own and the Christmas meal normally provided by volunteers at the Beehive would not be happening because of Covid.
"So on Christmas Day with a group of community volunteers we delivered over 90 three-course hot meals across East Devon to people who were on their own and to those who could not afford it."
This spontaneous effort became known as Operation Rudolph and included food hampers and gift boxes, delivered by TRIP vehicles and drivers and funded by local people and local businesses.
All of this work exposed a deeper community need for help and this led to Project Food being set up. The initiative has linked up with Honiton Foodsave, founded and run by Jake Bonetta and now based at Honiton Family Church, just off the High Street, and also Honiton Foodbank, based in the King's Centre.
Honiton Foodsave's core mission is to stop food being wasted.
Jake said: "We collect waste food from supermarkets and give it out for free to anyone in the community.
"No referrals are needed, no questions are asked."
The idea is for Project Food meals to be produced and distributed from Honiton Foodsave’s hub at the Family Church.
Laurie Spencer, who owns Porkies the butcher in New Street, Honiton, is a big supporter of the initiative.
He said: “We hope in time to be able to use the kitchen at the Family Church and Jake is fundraising at the moment for it to be refurbished for this purpose.
“So what we need now are donations – of time, money or produce. If people can volunteer their time to help make this project sustainable, their money to cover essential costs or produce and ingredients to help us produce nutritious, ready-cooked meals, that would be a great help.”
There are collection pots at porkies, the TRIP offices in New Street and at the Wine Bar in the High Street, where donations will be welcome.
Laurie added: “This is purely a community project responding to a genuine need.”
Sharon said: “It is a big thing. We can bring Project Food under one roof if we can get the kitchen sorted. But we need help. We need people to step forward and be involved. Then we can organise ourselves and make the whole thing sustainable.”

Set up in November, Honiton Foodsave has been running since April 1 from its new home at the Honiton Family Church on the High Street – from 8.45pm to 10pm.
Jake said: “Since launching we have collected nearly ten thousand items of surplus food from Tesco, Co-op, Spar, Waitrose, Lidl and Aldi among others.”
Pastor Tim Judson joined Honiton Family Church in February 2020, just a few weeks before the first national lockdown, and has been working hard to support the town.
He said: “I want to promote and raise awareness of the good work being done by groups in our community and am honoured to be a part of Honiton Foodsave’s next step. We have a lot of plans in place and the opportunities are endless.”
Honiton Foodsave continues to go from strength to strength and is now running four collection sessions a week: Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8.45pm to 10pm and Sundays from 4.30pm to 5.30pm.