A NEW charity which aims to tackle food inequality in and around Tranent is seeking people to join its board.

Fa’side Community Kitchen delivers meals to more than 500 people every week.

It aims to support the community to alleviate the pressure of food insecurity and food poverty, reduce isolation and relieve hardship, working alongside community partners to do so.

To do this, it delivers fresh meals to those in need and offers activities that will improve people’s mental health.

The community kitchen was set up last year following the work of Duncan McBride and Joyce Thomson, who cooked about 20,000 meals during the first lockdown last spring as part of Tranent’s resilience effort in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ruth Davie, from Fundamental Foods, which set up the emergency food provision in Fa’side and is guided by the Pennypit Trust, said she was looking for a chef to cook hot meals and Duncan offered his services.

Duncan then approached Joyce and her husband Andy, his long-time friends, and soon got them involved.

They then spent the next few months making thousands of meals from their base in Tranent’s East Lothian Co-operative Bowling Club, where Joyce works behind the bar, and used its kitchens to prepare the meals.

They would be in the bowling club about five or six days a week making about 200 meals a day for those in need.

Since then, it has become a registered charity and is keen for local East Lothian residents to join its board and help to continue its work.

A spokesperson for Fa’side Community Kitchen said the charity wanted to recruit members of the local community in East Lothian who “are motivated, experienced and passionate about building back better”.

The only requirement is that applicants must be over the age of 18.

To find out more information, email tracey@volunteereastlothian.org.uk