6 minute read
Charity Special
The Kindness of Strangers
When times are tough, the Okehampton community really pulls together
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If you’re wandering down Okehampton’s East Street on a Friday afternoon don’t be surprised to see Rebecca Green handing out boxes of hot food to passing youngsters from her 3 East Street premises. Or perhaps you’ll spot her unloading sacks of potatoes or upstairs in the kitchen teaching a bunch of teenagers how to make ‘mug bread’ or walking round Simmons Park in a high-vis vest giving out hot drinks and cheery chat. For Rebecca, who runs the Community Kitchen, is one of Okehampton’s angels - a hero without a cape - who devotes every spare second she has to helping others. And in our current climes, with hardly a household in the land untouched by money worries, she’s busier than ever.
Food for thought
Rebecca had been running her cafe, 3 East Street, until Covid hit. “Throughout the lockdowns we were taking out meals and emergency food packs,” Rebecca explains. “What we came across was a lot of people who weren’t eating very well - or weren’t eating at all. Like elderly people trying to survive on just biscuits and sandwiches because they can’t afford to turn the oven on for just one person. “That’s when we realised we could help do something. We could ‘sell’ food with the cafe and our accompanying catering business, and that would enable us to also ‘give away’ food.” But Rebecca doesn’t want it to be only about hand-outs. She’s striving to create what she calls ‘community resilience’. “We don’t just give people a can of tomatoes and some pasta, we give them a pack of herbs and spices. Or a slow cooker - that’s one of our main donations - so that people can actually cook well and effectively. “We’re also going to try to set up community pantries - a foodsharing initiative - whereby people put a box outside their houses in which they put anything spare from their larders for others to take.” At the heart of Rebecca’s philosophy is the idea that we should all look out for each other. “That mum in the playground you think is doing so well with Slimming World? She might simply not have enough to eat herself after feeding her kids. That old man who gives you a smiley wave every morning as he shuffles past? He might not have had a proper meal in days. “We all have the power to change the world around us, it doesn’t matter how much money we’ve got or what background we’re from. Community spirit costs nothing.”
The pub landlord
It’s not just Rebecca who is using her business to help others, and cultivate ‘community spirit’. Simon Chudley, proprietor of The London Inn makes sure his pub is more than just a place to go for a drink or to watch the football.
“I see it like a pub you might find on a city housing estate or in a village, somewhere everyone comes together. It’s a hub.” And for the last few months Simon has been providing free teas and coffees, encouraging people to come in for some warmth - both in terms of temperature and human contact. “One of the real problems is loneliness. People can’t afford to go out any more. There’s one woman who comes in here who recently lost her husband. In the 13 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen her. For the first couple of mornings she just sat on her own and had a coffee. Now she’s chatting away to people.” Simon has been blown away by the reaction from local businesses and individuals keen to help. “The other day we got given 4000 teabags - we’ll be making cuppas into the next millennium! And random people who’ve heard about what we’re doing walk in off the street and hand us £10 or £20 to put towards it.”
Mind and body
Over at the Wellbeing Cafe on St James Street, they’ve come up with another way of people helping others with a ‘pay it forward’ scheme, whereby those who have come in can add a little extra to the bill to go towards the cost for someone who can’t afford it. And like Simon, manager Emma Hawkins, is deeply concerned about people’s mental as well as physical wellbeing.
“People from all walks of life are really struggling: from the homeless to working professionals. And they can feel incredibly isolated.” The cafe opened last October to help tackle such problems. It’s a sort of one-stop-shop which provides not just a listening ear, but also runs drop-in health sessions for those not registered with a GP, can help with things like benefits and housing, and give professional assistance for anyone suffering from mental health issues, such as the anxiety management course being run there this month. “We’re really looking at the whole of our community - how we can actually support local people. But you can also just drop in for one of our great breakfasts or a slice of delicious cake as well!”
Escape from reality
Of course, it’s not just adults who can find themselves in need when times are bleak. Ryan Arthur runs Immersion, a gaming and virtual reality arcade where he holds numerous ‘social clubs’ every week for youngsters to come in, play, and, most importantly, socialise with each other. “We work very hard fundraising to make sure that as many of those sessions as possible are free. Kids feel the stresses and strains of life like everyone else. They feel low; they feel lonely. Immersion is somewhere they can escape for a while. “It’s wonderful to watch a nervous kid come shyly through the door, and then two hours later leave having had real fun - laughing and making friends.” And Ryan even says that ten minutes on one of the virtual reality head sets can do anyone the power of good. “You get to disappear into another world and it’s cheaper than an hour with a therapist!”
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Quiet corner
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