The Lambourn Bakers – Hugs in a box!
The #Lambournbakers are a group of 5 volunteers who have been providing ‘hugs in a box’ for local people since May 2020. During the first months of the pandemic they provided sweet treats and homemade goodies as a thank you to the NHS and keyworkers and to bring cheer to those isolated and shielding or in need of a bit of TLC. As the world went back to normal in the Autumn they baked for all of the 70 Lambourn Volunteers to say thank you before hanging up their aprons for a few months.
When an appeal came in late January 2021 from Tara Williams one of the local Lambourn Volunteers helping out at the vaccination centre at Newbury Racecourse for some homemade cakes the group swung into action. With one of the original bakers moving away from the village, Freya’s son Atti stepped up to the plate and joined the group to bake for the community as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.
The cakes have been very well received with numerous messages of thank you and requests for the recipes – ‘the Lambourn Baker’s cakes are the best’. Tara who coordinates the bakes and delivers them when she is on shift, recounted one morning in March ‘I was swamped with volunteers asking me to thank the Lambourn Bakers for their cakes, they simply are everyone’s favourites. There are about 30 volunteers per shift and people were coming up to me asking ‘are you the Lambourn Baker?’ I explained no just the delivery person! They really are hugely liked also the individual wrapping in much appreciated.’
The Lambourn Bakers were asked to join the other volunteers for the visit by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire Mr James Puxley on Wednesday 28th April as a thank you for all their support. With Freya and Sam hard at work and Atti at school, Rachel and Helen went along to represent the group. Rachel commented ‘It was a real privilege to be invited and amazing to meet all the volunteers and see the centre in action. The highlight for me was meeting Tara in person, after corresponding via WhatsApp for all these months – especially as she had just been nominated volunteer of the week. Lambourn is a special place with some incredible people supporting their local community. We are grateful to be able to contribute in some small way to our village and its residents.’
The core #LambournBakers team are Freya Priddey-Chan, Atti Priddey-Chan, Helen Reynolds, Sam Holland and Rachel Jannaway.
