A BORDERS charity is set to receive more than £1,000, thanks to readers of the Border Telegraph.

Last month, you were invited to nominate local organisations to win a share of a £16,000 charity pot from Newsquest – the parent company of this newspaper.

Galashiels Foodbank was your chosen charity and has won £1,002.83, thanks to your votes.

Liz Williams, one of the six trustees at Galashiels Foodbank, said: “This has come at a brilliant time.

“We’ve just finished the ‘low and slow’ courses and can now safely put on more in the Galashiels, Selkirk and Melrose areas next year.”

The foodbank’s low and slow scheme has seen 18 slow cookers handed out to families to help them through the cost-of-living crisis.

Based at St Peter’s Church, the foodbank – in cooperation with NHS Borders and Cyrenians in Edinburgh – has run the Low and Slow scheme to provide foodbank users with a slow cooker and ingredients to make hot, nutritious and money-saving meals at home using minimal electricity.

In addition to the slow cookers, the foodbank has provided cooking lessons for clients to make the most of them.

The foodbank has run three of its Low and Slow courses, each helping six service users.

The courses saw clients learn to make a variety of dishes, including beef stew and lentil curry, which they could prepare at the Focus Centre in Galashiels before taking home to put into their slow cookers.

Volunteers from the foodbank also gave a helping hand during the courses, acting as befrienders, helping to chop vegetables and have a chat with clients.

As well as helping people with their cooking skills, the Low and Slow scheme has had an extra benefit for service users.

“It’s been a joy to see people grow in confidence,” said Liz. “People have come back to us and said they’ve experimented with the recipes and tried different things.

“It’s been lovely to see.”

She added: “We’re very grateful to the Border Telegraph and the organisation [Newsquest].

“This [funding] will see us through to next year.

“We’ve had a lot of superb support from organisations in Galashiels and plenty of donations this Christmas.

“People here are so generous.”

Galashiels Foodbank was one of 10 organisations nominated by readers across Scotland to receive a share of the fund.

The amount each charity received was determined by the number of voting tokens sent in by readers each week.

People can self-refer to Galashiels Foodbank for three weeks and will be supported to access help from other agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.

For more information on the work the foodbank does, visit: galashielsfoodbank.co.uk