TAVISTOCK’S church community is coming together to help people in town beat the cold this winter, with food and a warm place available at a different church each day.

The Warm Wecome initiative, coordinated by Deborah Bevan of Tavistock Area Christians Together, is bringing together St Eustachius Parish Church, the Catholic Church of our Lady of the Assumption, the King’s church and the United Reformed Church.

Deborah, who is the family worker at Tavistock Methodist Church, explained that the town’s church community wanted to help people this winter as energy bills soar.

Deborah said: ‘Each church is going to run a warm space on one day of the week. Some are going to have hot lunches. We are going to do tea and toast in the morning on Thusdays, St Eustachius Church will be opening the parish rooms on Monday, the Catholic Church is open on Wednesday. There will be something different each day for people to go to.

‘I came up with the idea, and a couple of people at the churches had had a similar idea to me and I said ‘I think this is a bigger than just church, so we went to the TACT (Tavistock Area Churches Together) meeting and came up with a plan. We just realised that lots of families, lots of elderly people, just lots of people in general are going to be in a really difficult situation this winter so having some places where they can come in that are warm, that are safe, that have a welcome from people that are there and that have a warm drink and possibly warm food would be something really good to offer the community.

‘We are each doing a different day. That is something every day of the week. It is starting in November and running through the winter months. We want to show our love for the community and it is part of our Christian duty to serve and be there for others so it has got a Christian ethos.’

The schedule is as follows: on Monday, St Eustachius Church will open the parish rooms from 10am to 12 noon; Tuesday, the Catholic Church is opening their meeting room from 10.30am to 12.30pm with refreshments and crafts; Wednesday, the Kings church is open from 11am to 12.30pm with a cafe; Tavistock Methodist Church upper hall open from 9am to with tea and toast; and on Friday, the United Reformed Church will have the Lower Deck Cafe open from 10am to 2pm.Tavistock Library is also open all day offering a warm space.