Charity the Okehampton Community Kitchen is appealing for people to take part in its Reverse Advent appeal to provide small gifts for local people of all ages in need this Christmas.

Rebecca Green, who runs the charity from her cafe 3 East Street, said she had already had a great deal of support for the idea, which sees people shop for small gifts for a given recipient, described without giving their name.

People who might like to receive presents are being referred to the charity, and Rebecca said there was still room for more to both give and receive gifts. All the gifts need to be dropped off at 3 East Street by 2pm on Christmas Eve, to be delivered to the recipients later that day and on Christmas Day.

Rebecca said: ’We are delivering to some of the nursing homes and lots of individuals. Some of them are young carers, some are people who have some big change in their lives, others have been affected by bereavement and there are some families where the parents have split up. There are also a lot of people who are just on their own at Christmas.

’When someone says they would like to take part, we allocate them a number, say 001 or whatever, and give a description, a single lady who is in her 80s who likes dogs, or a mum with a girl of eight and a boy of seven, for instance, so they have some idea of who they are buying for.’

She said people could buy one gift, or as many as 24, replicating all the days of the Advent Calendar. ’The idea is it is mixture of practical things and little treats,’ she said. ’Some of them are doing it for 24 days, others buying just one bigger gift.’

She said primary schools in the area as well as several workplaces were taking part, providing gifts to share in the packs.

’The idea is they pop them into us at 3 East Street by 2pm on Christmas Eve and I have got a team who will be picking them up and driving them to people,’ said Rebecca. ’Some of the drivers themselves are on their own at Christmas.

’It is a really nice project. I wasn’t expecting it to take off as it has. We have got 115 people on our list now and more referrals are coming as people are hearing about it, so we are adding more people all the time. We are having a number of referrals so we do need more people to provide the presents.’

Gifts need not be big or expensive. They could include a child’s handdrawn card, shower gel, toys, a jar of jam, a notebook, socks, a puzzlebook or a toothbrush. Contact Okehampton Community Kitchen via the Facebook page, call or text Rebecca on 07806 770926 or pop into 3 East Street in Okehampton to find out more.