Braintree: 'Volunteers help lonely and homeless celebrate Christmas (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Braintree: 'Volunteers help lonely and homeless celebrate Christmas

1:00pm Monday 26th December 2011 in North Essex

Volunteers served up a bumper Christmas Day feast.

So many people wanted to join the Salvation Army dinner at the Braintree Salvation Army Hall that some volunteers had to sit in the garden to eat.

Sixty drivers, carers, deliverers, cooks, tea-makers and waiters fed and entertained 80 guests at the Rayne Road hall and another 42 meals were delivered to homes in Braintree.

And Braintree MP Brooks Newmark spent Christmas morning cooking a fry up for homeless people.

He donned at Santa hat and served up bacon and eggs at the Salvation Army's New Direction Centre in Bocking End.