A north-east community group dedicated to supporting those in need has appealed to locals to help them make sure pensioners do not go without this Christmas.
Social enterprise group, Care United Banff, launched in 2013 to ensure the needy have access to a hot meal and even the Internet.
Its shop at 57 Low Street also sells donated goods, with the proceeds donated to a different cause each week including schools, nurseries, play groups and sports clubs.
Now, founder Fiona Worrell wants to make sure that older people in hard-to-reach villages are well fed over Christmas – and has pleaded with local people to donate what they can.
“We’ve found that people who are older aren’t used to living off the items generally at food banks – the pastas and the rices – so we’ll be providing potatoes and soup-making things for them to try,” she said.
“We have an existing food bank in Banff, but we were finding that a lot of the existing users were coming from areas further afield.”
If successful, the group will travel to villages including Gardenstown and Whitehills.
“It’s about trying to bring people together. Obviously, if you have no money and you need food it can be tricky to get a bus fare or fuel,” said Ms Worrell.
She added that the food bank could run past the holiday if the need is there.
“I would imagine that the food bank will probably run longer than Christmas, looking at the Government tax credit cuts. There is certainly a call for it at the moment,” she said.
“This is really what Care United Banff is about. Wherever there’s a gap in a service we fill it.”
Care United Banff will also offer a social cafe service in neighbouring Macduff over Christmas where people can volunteer and build up their skills.
Ms Worrell said: “We’ve already trained up several people for food hygiene at different levels.”