A CHEF who was meant to be starting a new job when the first lockdown kicked in has used his skills to help support his community - and there is no doubt how grateful many of them are.

Alec Anderson and his partner Sarah Fry moved from Lincoln to Greysouthen a year ago.

"We love the area and thought it would be a great place to live and work, there's lots of hospitality here," said Alec, 36.

But days before he was due to start a new job in March it all fell through. "It was pretty awful, I had no income," he said.

He was aware that the village hall had been turned into a community hub, offering support to all the residents.

"I went to the village hall to see if they wanted meals for people self isolating. I started doing that and then did some menus and it got popular," he said.

More than six months on he is still supporting people who are self-isolating but is also creating delicious meals for residents. Once a week he cooks in the village hall, offering themed menus. They are then delivered to people's homes.

"I started doing it because I couldn't find a job, hospitality has been completely shut down. Initially it was about people self isolating wanting a treat. Now there are quite a few people that I cook for every week," he said.

"It's nice helping the community and I get to cook what I want. It's nice to help and I've got great feedback."

Sarah, who is from Australia and works in software, does the orders and emails. A year ago they had only just landed in the village, now their hard work is well known and much appreciated.

"The village hall has become a real community hub and it's great to be part of that," said Alec. "It was that or sitting at home twiddling my fingers!"

Resident Jane Inman is in no doubt about the value of the village takeway - and nominated Alec as our Person of the Week.

"The hall benefits as it continues to be in use to support the community and Alec makes a weekly donation which is helping towards our costs," she said.

"My husband and I recently personally benefitted a lot from their community support when we had to quarantine for two weeks and were able to have tasty meals, bread and scones delivered to help when we were totally unable to venture out."

"It’s been really great to see something emerge from the situation where we have a good community facility, where the hall is in regular use keeping it ready for when we can all go back to our usual programme and where Alec, who became unemployed as a result of the pandemic, has been able to continue doing what he loves doing for the benefit of the community."