Villagers going through hard times helped the successful launch of a food hub.

Princetown Food Hub and club welcomed about 30 people to its new base at the Methodist Chapel.

The hub, organised by Feeding Devon, welcomes anyone from the Princetown area finding life is extra hard this winter to the chapel every Wednesday from 11am to noon where they can buy a large carrier bag they fill themselves from a choice of fresh vegetables, dried and tinned food, for a suggested donation of £5.

The hub also offers a warm place in which to socialise and enjoy free hot drinks and soup.

Sandra Dodd, Methodist lay preacher for Princetown, Peter Tavy and Yelverton, supports the hub. She said: ‘People’s main need at the moment is for a regular affordable supply of food local to their home and the food hub and its new food club have proved to fulfil that need on the first day.

‘People have been very receptive to what we are offering which is not only every day necessities, but also somewhere warm to meet and have a hot drink and soup.

‘We’ve had about ten families and other people, which just shows the diverse need we are meeting. Princetown is isolated geographically and in other ways. Not everyone has a car to get to the cheaper supermarkets for food, so we are important for those who are isolated in that way.’

Alan Twitcher, 70, retired joiner, of Princetown, came to the hub with friend Hannah Easterbrook. He said: ‘Times are hard with the prices going up all the time, so anything like this helps. Also, the money we pay for the basics goes back into supporting people worse off than us and stops food waste.’

Hannah, who has two children, aged 21 and 14, said: ‘I have a family and feeding them is getting more expensive and we’re finding it hard. The food here is just what we need as my husband works, but I can’t due to a spinal injury but there are people who can’t afford to eat and heat their homes, so buying what we can here helps them as well as the money buys them food. It’s also good recycling.’

Tavistock Food Hub is also available every Wednesday from 11am to 12.30pm at The Kings, Pixon Lane.

Feeding Devon transports food in a chiller van across local food hubs and to distribute surplus food to community fridges across West Devon.

Feeding Devon is a network of more than 30 organisations, committed to ending hunger locally. The aim is to improve food crisis support, to avoid the need to choose between eating or heating. Princetown residents in food crisis are encouraged to contact Princetown Food Hub at [email protected] or message via Facebook.