Chef cooks up a festive treat for city’s homeless
COVID FORCES CHANGES, BUT VULNERABLE STILL GET THEIR ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DINNER
A COLLEGE lecturer, his family and colleagues gave up part of their Christmas Day to help a charity cook up a treat for some of the city’s homeless people.
Chef Ian Bremner, who teaches at Leicester College, cooked meals at charity Bridge Homelessness to Hope’s base in Melton Street, in the city centre.
Along with a full Christmas dinner, guests also received presents from The Bridge, with the backing of supporters including Leicester City FC and Amazon.
The charity, which offers a range of services throughout the year to people who are sleeping rough or are vulnerably housed, traditionally works with Leicester’s Case restaurant to feed homeless people on Christmas Day.
However, that was not been possible this year because of the coronavirus restrictions.
Ian said: “Serving Christmas dinner to those most in need is a privilege and one that me, my family and the volunteers enjoy very much.
“It can be a very difficult time of year for many of those who find themselves homeless.
“I just hope that a festive dinner, shared with loving and caring volunteers can, if even for a couple of hours, allow them to smile and feel the warmth and joy of a very special day.”
The team fed about 30 people in two sittings.
David Fawcett, operations manager at the charity, said: “We traditionally host these Christmas dinners for our guests at the Case restaurant.
“Covid-19 Tier 3 restrictions have resulted in us cooking the dinners at our facility on Melton Street so that we can remain Covid-secure.
“We would like to thank Ian, his family and colleagues, the supporters who’ve contributed to the guests’ presents and all of the other people who are helping to put this dinner on at such a difficult time of the year for the city’s homeless.”
A number of other organisations and individuals either fed or collected essentials for those in need over the Christmas period.