A VILLAGE hero has kept the promise she made to her community – to cook up 10,000 free meals for vulnerable residents and key workers in the coronavirus lockdown.
Kim Clark, from Evenwood, has been working night and day in her kitchen to whip up the meals which have ranged from home-cooked stews and sausage sandwiches to cakes and treats.
Helped by a small team of helpers, they have been delivered to elderly people, the isolated, the needy and NHS workers.
The meals are made using donations of food from companies and residents who regularly drop off supplies at her house in Farncombe Terrace.
Ms Clark, whose own catering business, Kim’s Kitchen, has been put on ice during the lockdown, reached the 10,000 meal milestone last Friday. She set herself the target at the start of the pandemic when she was first asked to help by Teesdale Day Clubs.
She said: “I feel proud and exhausted all at the same time. But to be honest, it’s been needed. We have got quite a few elderly people in the village who are still isolated, so we will continue a couple of days a week to help them until things are safe and they can get out.”
The efforts have won praise in the House of Commons after Teesdale’s MP, Dehenna Davison, singled out Ms Clark’s efforts.
But Ms Clark said none of it would have been possible without the help of several villagers. Mum Olivia and son Dillon Seagrave, 4, have been taking the food deliveries to households, along with friends Sarah Linsley-Patton and Clare Burt. It takes them about two hours a day to complete their rounds.
Ms Clark said: “I could stand and cook 24/7 but I couldn’t have done this without those guys.”
The “delivery angels” agreed that their efforts have helped keep them busy in the lockdown, as well as providing a lifeline to isolated residents. Ms Burt said: “When you deliver to the elderly, they often give you a parcel back – tins, veg and apples. They want to give something in return.”
Ms Linsley-Patton added: “Sometimes it’s not necessarily the meal that you are delivering – it’s the five minutes of conversation that matters. Some people don’t see anyone.”
Ms Seagrave joked that she no longer wears her fashionable ripped jeans when visiting old folks because they keep offering to mend them.
“The kindness we have received from the village has been wonderful,” added Ms Clark.
Evenwood company Graham’s Logs is one many businesses which has helped and six-year-old Winter Bentley has drawn rainbows to go in the parcels. Staff leave supplies every day at Ms Clark’s home – from hundreds of sausages to enough mince to feed dozens of people. Village sweet shop Babylicious also donated treats and joiner Matthew Dunn recently stopped Ms Clark in the street to give her £100 to help the cause – his gran was one of the many people to have received food.
“This village sometimes gets a bad name but it has a wonderful community,” said Ms Clark.
GlaxoSmithKline donated £300 and Teesdale Lions donated £250.
The hearty meals are loving prepared in Ms Clark’s professional kitchen. She makes meals to suit whatever food and produce is donated.
“I make sure that we serve food that I’d eat myself – and I’m a picky eater – so it has to be good,” she said.
The pandemic has put Ms Clark’s business on hold but she hopes to restart it again when the lockdown eases further. Until then, she’s planning to put her feet up a little more often than she has been.
But she is still appealing for donations so that those who are isolated can be helped. Search for Kim’s Kitchen in Evenwood on Facebook.
