SUPPORT FOR LOCAL PEOPLE OVER FESTIVE PERIOD

Date: Monday 13 January

News Release

January 2025

Several groups, organisations and businesses supported a number of local families in east Perthshire over the festive period by delivering more than 70 hampers containing food and other items in the run up to Christmas.

The hampers were made up in the BaRI building in Blairgowrie by Perth and Kinross Council team members, community wardens and volunteers with Blairgowrie and Rattray Development Trust’s BaRI Food Project, and were hand-delivered by engineers from British Gas as part of their commitment to supporting communities in the UK.

Lesley McDonald is operations officer at BRDT. Thanking the council, British Gas and others she said: “We are very grateful to PKC for including us in efforts to help others at what can be a very difficult time of year for many people, and we were delighted when British Gas offered to help with the deliveries.

“Everything we do is designed to make a positive difference to our town and it is great that British Gas engineers have supported us in our efforts to achieve that.

“We are also very grateful to other local groups and businesses including Sholach Trees, Mantalk, Sainsbury’s and Albert Bartlett for their generous donations.

“We feel very privileged to be able to work with so many amazing people every day as we work towards creating a more sustainable food system within our local community.”

A spokesperson for British Gas added: “Through our Big Difference initiative, everyone in the company has the chance to shape where our donations go, and which charities they would like to volunteer and fundraise for.

“Every person in the company gets two paid days a year to use to volunteer, and can choose where they volunteer – it could be a local group or a cause that they care about.

“The Big Difference focuses on three themes - children and young people, health, and poverty – and local electrical service engineers decided to offer support to the BaRI Food Store in Blairgowrie as what they offer in the local community is aligned to British Gas values.”

BRDT’s BaRI Food Project is made up of a number of initiatives aimed at reaching people through food, reducing food waste and costs, and encouraging growing more food locally, and works closely with other groups and projects to achieve this.

Amongst the initiatives is the popular BaRI Store, which is based at 53-55 High Street in Blairgowrie and sells in-date food and food which is at its best-before-date that supermarkets cannot sell anymore. A range of items is available at heavily discounted prices. It also stocks eco-friendly cleaning products and toiletries that can be refilled at the store, reducing thenumber of plastic bottles that end up in landfill.

The BaRI Food store is open on Mondays, 2pm to 3pm, Wednesdays, 4pm to 5pm, Thursdays, 9.30am to 10.30am and Saturdays, 10.30am to noon.

The Saturday Lunch Club sees volunteer drivers deliver around 40 portions of soup and cake to local residents, and the Wednesday Lunch Club hosts monthly in-person get-togethers over soup and cake – as well as a quiz - with residents of Harriet Court, Cluny Court, Darroch Gate and Ericht Court. Homemade BaRI meals are also available to order.

Anyone who would like to receive free soup and cake every week, or would like to try the pre-cooked meals, should email lesley@discoverblairgowrie.co.uk for further details.

Alternatively, follow ‘BaRI Food & Refill’ and ‘Saturday Lunch Club’ on Facebook.

Further information on BRDT can be found at www.brdt.org.uk

For media enquiries, please contact Clare McMicking on 07514 343 042 or media@brdt.org.uk