CHERITON Fitzpaine Garden Club has donated £400 to Crediton Foodbank from sales of its very first recipe book. 

Sponsored by Ashgrove Kitchens, the new book contains a variety of recipes contributed by members of the club. 

It is proving a hit locally with around £1,000 worth of copies already sold. 

“I just had a mad idea that it would be a good idea to produce a cookery book, particularly thinking about dealing with gluts of vegetables which gardeners usually get at this time of the year,” Cheriton Fitzpaine Garden Club member Mary Burchmore said. 

Crediton Foodbank Coordinator Fiona Cochran told the Courier the money “means everything” because the organisation relies completely on donations. 

A registered charity, it provides emergency food for local people in crisis in the town and surrounding villages. 

“Whether it's food or whether it's finance, we're completely funded by the public,” she said. 

“It means everything for us to keep going.”

In its first year in 2012, Crediton Foodbank gave out 100 food parcels. Last year, it handed out more than 2,000.  

Each parcel contains around £50 worth of food. 

“We give out about 40 boxes a week at the moment,” Mrs Cochran continued. 

“That might be a family of six, it might be an individual.  

“It's not one kind of person who's using us, we've got everyone from students through to pensioners.”

Cheriton Fitzpaine Garden Club Chairman Andrew Dean thanked those who had been involved in the production of the “really good quality” book “for all their hard work and for putting it together”. 

“It's been proofread, proofread, proofread, and proofread again and again. It was a challenge,” he said. 

The recipe book took around six months to produce and features artwork by local artist Jeannine Rundle. It has been printed by Hedgerow Print. 

If you would like to buy a copy, you can telephone Mr Dean on 07970 245350. 

Copies of the new book will also be available at Cheriton Fitzpaine Garden Club's annual summer show on Saturday, August 17. 

The event will take place from 2.30pm in Cheriton Fitzpaine Village Hall.