For many years, David was hands on with cooking, drawing on his experience running a lunch club. In recent years, the team started to deliver oven-ready meals, complete with fruit, sweets and chocolates to people’s homes. This year, they plan to deliver around 77 meals to people across the community and, while Braintree Salvation Army leader Rachel Hepburn will be leading the Christmas Day eat-in meal this year, David and his wife Cathy will still be delivering meals to those who won’t be able to come down on the day itself on 23 December.
Now at 79, his sons have gently suggested that he should become a guest rather than the coordinator.
David said: “It may finally be time to hand over the torch but I will miss it greatly. I’ll be thinking about what is going all day at The Salvation Army.”
What has kept him going over year after year? Gratitude, he says – from the guests, the volunteers and the community.
Dining and Cooking