Businesses in a Redesdale village have worked together to provide residents with warming foods.

Five volunteers from the RTC Sports and Leisure Centre went out last Thursday (March 4) to drop off vegetable soup and rice pudding to around 70 residents in Otterburn.

It was a community effort, with The Coach House making the food, with ingredients donated by The Border Reiver Cafe and Shop, and Jennings Fruit and Veg shop.

Community Action Northumberland (CAN) supplied the recycled soup mugs, as well as carbon monoxide monitors which volunteers also handed out.

Age UK also donated activity packs to be distributed.

One resident who received the package said: “I was absolutely thrilled to bits.”

Another said the gift was a “bright light”.

The centre was accepted as a Warm Hub last year, a project by CAN which defines the hubs as ‘places within the local community where people can be assured of finding a safe, warm and friendly environment in which to enjoy refreshments, social activity, information and advice and the company of other people’.

Georgie Kenny, Activity Development Officer at RTC Sports and Leisure Centre, said: “Becoming a member of the Warm Hub is a big honour really.

“With the lockdowns, we have not been able to invite people to the centre, so we have been reaching out.

“It’s a great way to get into contact with the community.”

Before Christmas, they also delivered bags which included Age UK’s activity packs and festive treats such as mince pies.

This week, they will be delivering their first tablet, also donated by CAN, to an elderly resident in Otterburn to help them stay in touch with their family members who live in the South of England.

RTC Sports and Leisure Centre are looking for more volunteers.

If anyone is interested in helping with the Warm Hub and could spare a couple of hours each month, contact Georgie on 07918581553 or email her on activities@rtcsports.co.uk.