Masons spread some bags of festive cheer

A HUGE batch of festive biscuits has been rustled up by the head chef at the Freemasons Hall in Leicester to help spread a bit of cheer.

With the continued lockdown in the city, the large kitchens at the hall have remained closed, with food stocks being wound down where possible.

In pre-pandemic times, the kitchen at the hall caters for many of Leicestershire and Rutland’s freemasons most days of the week, and is also home to Devonshire Place, one of the city’s leading venues for weddings and event hire.

With uncertainty around when Freemasons Hall will reopen, rather than dispose of the food, head chef Greg Prangnell and the team decided to put the ample stocks of ingredients to good use, by baking a huge batch of biscuits, which made 1,572 biscuits in total.

These were then divided into 262 bags of six biscuits each, all carefully prepared by the Greg and the team and packaged into gift bags complete with tag.

Ninety of the gift bags were donated and delivered to Leicester residents who suffer with Motor Neurone Disease, with the remaining 172 gift bags being donated to residents of the Devonshire Court Care Home in Oadby.

Peter Kinder, head of the Freemasons in Leicestershire and Rutland, said: “Throughout the year, Freemasons have been finding ingenious ways of helping the local community, such as manufacturing PPE, delivering meals, and donating money.

“I must thank Nicola Holyoake and the team for putting our kitchens to further good use and bringing a smile to people’s faces in the run up to Christmas.”