People experiencing homelessness in Bournemouth cooked a very special Christmas lunch which raised £4,000 for Bee Mission, a Community Interest Company which saves bees and supports people living on the streets.

Led by Bee Mission’s Amy Foster and Jenny Newman, the pair worked with a team of people experiencing homelessness to help prepare, cook, and serve a Christmas feast for 100 guests at The Garden Rooms Café on Haviland Road, Boscombe.

For the past four years, three times a week, every week, Amy Foster cooks meals from her kitchen at home for up to 60 people and then with the help from additional volunteers, goes into Bournemouth town centre and delivers the meals at three drop off points.

Amy said: “To see everyone coming together to support people experiencing homelessness meant so much. We had an incredible team of volunteers which included some of the guys that are out there living on the streets right now. When they heard we were organising this lunch to raise money for them, they wanted to help, and they were amazing, as was everyone that helped make Sunday happen.”

Guests were greeted by carols from the Our Lady Queen of Peace Church Choir in Southbourne led by Anne Hartley before being served a three-course Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. Following lunch, there was a raffle raising over £500 and a Christmas singalong.

“Everyone was so generous” Amy said. “People brought presents for us to give out with our special Christmas delivery, they offered their time to come and help us with our normal weekly deliveries, and I still can’t believe it, but we raised over £4,000. This means we can give everyone that’s living on the streets a really wonderful Christmas dinner and it also pays for our food bills for quite a while.

“Thanks to people’s overwhelming generosity, we can deliver a bit of Christmas cheer this year, with a hearty meal and some lovely gifts, we hope that everyone finds a moment of happiness, whatever their situation is.”

To find out more and donate to Bee Mission, please visit: https://beemission.co.uk/