A dedicated volunteer chef has cooked his last meal for a north-east homeless charity.
In his four years at Aberdeen Cyrenians, Brian Stewart has helped prepare about 10,000 meals for people sleeping rough on the city’s streets.
The 72-year-old has volunteered at the charity’s Summer Street base which serves meals four times a week, and every day over the Christmas period.
But yesterday, the former oil and gas environmental manager hung up his apron for the last time to give himself more free time on his retirement.
Last night, he recalled how his work with the charity had been launched following a chance meeting when he was delivering Christmas trifles from Queen’s Cross Church.
He said: “When I was here I got chatting to Jenna Ingram, who’s in charge of the Street Alternatives service.
“She told me they were desperate for people to help out in the kitchen.
“I’m not much of a cook but I said I’d help out by chopping up vegetables, but by my third week I was the cook and I’ve been here ever since.”
The charity offers hot meals four times a day, four days a week.
In the time Mr Stewart has been helping in the kitchen, the number of people coming in for meals has soared.
And he has urged anyone who has any time to spare to get involved.
He said: “When I first started, at most you had about 15 people coming in, but it’s now back up to around 38, which is very sad for a city with the wealth of Aberdeen.
“Don’t have any preconceived ideas about who is coming in to get this food because there’s a wide cross-section of people coming in.”
The charity will be holding information sessions between 6pm-8pm on January 16 and 18 at its Summer Street base.
