EAST Lothian golf star Catriona Matthew visited East Lothian Foodbank ahead of her appearance at the Ladies Scottish Open, held at The Renaissance Club, Dirleton, earlier this month.

Matthew, from North Berwick, visited the foodbank, on Tranent’s Civic Square, on August 7, the week before the competition took place.

She brought some donations with her, and foodbank volunteer Barbara Edgar showed her around the foodbank.

Matthew then helped make up a foodbank parcel for two adults in a household.

She, alongside all of the foodbank volunteers, wore a mask and gloves while putting the food parcel together.

The visit came after the foodbank was selected as the competition’s official charity for this year, something foodbank director Candace Higgins said she was “absolutely delighted about” and “blown away” by.

On her visit, Matthew said: “To visit East Lothian Foodbank has been great actually.

“It’s just amazing seeing the volunteers and just seeing the work they did.

“Barbara showed me around and we made up a food pack for a couple for three days.

“Barbara, I must say though that I was very good at putting the little extras in all the time, so I think our bags were a little bit fuller perhaps than normal. It’s quite humbling to see all the work that they do.

“It’s been fascinating to come and just see all the hard work – it’s run by volunteers – just to see all the work that they have been doing, especially the last four, five months during the pandemic.”

On the foodbank being selected as the Ladies Scottish Open’s official charity this year, she said: “I think it’s great that big events like that that’s going to be filmed worldwide, players coming from all over the world, it supports a local charity.”

Candace added: “The generosity of [tournament sponsors] Aberdeen Standard Investments, Catriona Matthew and everyone involved in the Ladies Scottish Open means we can continue doing vital work for the people of East Lothian.

“This not only means we can continue to provide emergency food parcels to those in need but it will also allow us to expand and develop our community work to get to the root cause of food poverty in the county.”

As part of being the official charity, £5 was donated for every birdie, £10 per eagle and £1,000 for a hole in one across the whole competition.

In total, £27,000 was donated.

In celebration, the foodbank has also been running a social media campaign in line with #FeelGoodFood month.

It was running the ‘Feel Good Food Cup’ to find out the public’s favourite comfort food, with the final a battle between tomato soup and rice pudding, with rice pudding victorious.

Players also discussed their own feel good foods and a video of their answers can be watched at youtube.com/watch?v=OR6cgdXdThA

East Lothian Foodbank was established in 2012 to meet the needs of rising food poverty in East Lothian.