IT HAS been nearly six months since a pair of Oswestry brothers set up a free food service for those in need in Oswestry.

Since then OsNosh has held weekly meals at Holy Trinity Church, welcoming people from all walks of life through the doors for a cooked meal and a chance to socialise.

Thanks to the generosity of the volunteers and local businesses donating food and money, Tom and Ben Wilson have been able to cater for large groups of people consistently, and have been overwhelmed with the support they have received.

“Our volunteers have been great which has been a huge help in pushing things forward,” said Ben.

“Each week we get enough food and money donated to purchase food which is helping us work out what we can provide each week.

“It’s a very seasonal healthy menu – but because it’s winter it’s dropped off a little bit which was expected. We get a lot from local producers such as Babinswood who have been fantastic.”

The pair have now got to a point at which the weekly meals are very well attended - and people seem to love it.

Tom said: “It took about six or seven weeks for the service to pick up and get to a point at which we had a lot of people coming through the doors.

“It took a while I think for some of the customers to build a level of trust with us. A lot of our customers don’t have social media or even internet access for that matter, so it was initially quite difficult to get the word out.

“We had help from newspapers, Citizens Advice and CHALK to get the word out, as well as putting up flyers and handing out leaflets.

“We have people coming here from all walks of life – there are older people, people who may have retired and all kinds of other people too.

“We do get a lot of regular visitors now, and it’s nice to see those people coming out of their shells a little more and interacting more with us and with the others eating here.

“Last week was very good, we had a lot of new faces. But for some people, it seems as though this has become a part of their life and they never miss a week, which is nice to see.”

Looking ahead, the pair have plans to involve some of their customers with the cooking side of things, and hope to offer catering services for events.

Ben said: “There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that cooking above many other active mediums is very beneficial to mental health.

“It’s really engaging and very tactile so it’s something I would definitely like to get some people involved in who might be struggling to help them out – we’re not only tackling food waste then, but also the health problems that some people experience.

“A long-term goal is to offer catering services for events, and to involve some of the people who may be suffering to work the events – but that’s something which is far in the future at the moment.”

“We could probably do that now with the volunteers we have, but we think it would be more meaningful to do it involving some of those we’ve helped to come out of their shell a bit and give them the chance to earn some money or learn a new skill or two.

“That’s the intention but it’s something that will be very gradual.”

The pair welcome any donations of food and welcome anyone willing to volunteer to help with service or cooking at the weekly events.

OsNosh will be holding an extra event on Saturday, February 9 starting at 7pm, when a three course meal will be on offer – 20 tickets are available for the evening. Call Ben on 07902 691 253 for more information.

To find out more about OsNosh, visit http://osnosh.co.uk/ or email osnosh@gmail.com

To make a donation, visit https://uk.gofundme.com/osnosh-oswestry-community-kitchen