CARING church volunteers have a spring in their step as they spread Easter joy to a hundred people in the local community.

The committee of Lyle Gateway bagged up 100 food parcels to deliver to the doors of members and others living in the area.

The gifts included a mini stuffed chicken with chipolatas and a mini steak pie, plus an Easter egg and Easter card.

The Gateway is based at Lyle Kirk church and is normally a thriving community hub but its meetings have been restricted by the pandemic.

Jimmy Crawford, chair, said: "We are delivering to members of Lyle Gateway and the wider community.

"We used money from charitable bodies who are happy to help us out."

The group was forced to cancel its Christmas dinner due to Covid and had planned to hold an Easter lunch instead, only for the second wave of infections and subsequent shutdown to put paid to this.

So they decided to take the Easter meal direct to the people instead.

Jimmy said: "The committee made the bags up and Robert Alexander Butchers made up the food pack.

"It's part of what we do.

"I think it will be much appreciated by our members and the wider community.

"It's not the food itself but it is the gesture people are grateful about - it's the fact that someone is thinking about them and it's bringing the community together again.

"We have 12 committee members and they have all worked very hard to pull this together."

Fellow congregation member and committee colleague Carole Chamberlain, pictured, said: "I think it's an absolutely brilliant idea.

"We are so lucky with all our volunteers and we are all doing the best we can in times like this."