Christmas time in a global pandemic isn’t always the most wonderful time of the year. Unity Grill and Ayrshire Women’s Hub have seen demand for their services double in the past year.

Community Spirit has been vital to keeping their causes going and especially important during this festive season.

Unity Grill is a social enterprise café have been tackling food poverty in Ayrshire. Their café prides themselves on local and organic produce.

Situated in the heart of town, they bring attention to important issues that often get overlooked.

Angela Iver, founder of Unity Grill, said: “Just by coming to eat with us is great support. We want people to understand that what we provide is really special and very delicious.”

Their high quality food and brunch menus keep customers coming back for more. For the past four years unity grill have hosted a Christmas dinner in their café.

Since they can’t do that this year, they’re raising money to make sure all families have a Christmas dinner:

Angela said: “We are providing a proper Christmas feast to families referred from our partner agencies. We’ve recently reached way beyond our Crowdfunder goal.”

As part of the hospitality sector, Unity Grill were forced to close

Angela added: “We rely on being open to generate an income that supports all the other work we do.

“So we turned Unity Grill into an online grocery store able to provide the things that were scarce in supermarkets while delivering goods to those who had to isolate or shield but could afford to pay,

“Every week we support around 80 struggling families with groceries of fruit, veg, milk, eggs, bread, and cupboard essentials.”

Ayrshire Women’s Hub are providing the full package over Christmas to make sure families have gifts for the whole family to open and to make sure they have the money for gas and electric, to cook their dinner.

Angie Mcpike, manager at the Hub said: “We’re about finding out the real source of the problem, that’s not just a quick fix.

“We have to consider the emotional side. If we can start ticking the boxes and clearing up the practical issues then we can move onto the long term fixes.”

A big part of the hub is dealing with social isolation and providing vulnerable people, not just women, but anyone in need. So they have to adapt to ensure they can still do their vital work.

Angie said: “It’s been difficult because not everyone is tech savvy, not everyone has access to a mobile phone or the internet. We can step in and get people that access, to see what funds are out there to provide them with broadband, so we can stay in contact with them.”

While they can no longer hold the events and meetings like before the pandemic, the Hub still exist to be there to support people

Both Unity Grill and Ayrshire Women’s Hub have started from nothing and been built up to be a huge part of their community.

In 2020, a year like no other, the community rely equally on The Hub and Unity Grill as much as they do the community.

Unity Grill and The Ayrshire Women’s Hub can be found on Facebook to discover more information about their Christmas appeals and how you can get involved.