THE founder of a scheme bringing people together on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic has scooped a top award.

Bite and Blether offers people from West Barns the chance to come together to enjoy a weekly soup and cake lunch in the village hall.

Numbers have increased over time to the extent that the initiative has outgrown the Thorburn Room and now meets in the building’s larger hall.

Hazel Gray stressed that it was very much a team effort after she was presented with the West Barns Community Council Cup by Andrew Ashton, the group chairman.

She said: “It was a very big surprise.

“For a start, it was a surprise and an honour but, as I said on the day, it was a real team effort.

“I run it but we have volunteers, a lovely set of volunteers, and we could not run it without them.”

A team of 15 volunteers work on a rota to support Hazel, who is regularly cooking up delicious soups and cakes in her kitchen in West Barns for the group, which meets each Monday afternoon.

Hazel, who works with a charity in Edinburgh, was also congratulated by last year’s winner of the award, Ola Wotjiewicz.

The 2024 winner told the Courier how the scheme – which has received funding from West Barns Community Council, Dunbar and East Linton Area Partnership (DELAP) and the Amos Trust – came about in August 2022.

She said: “It was an idea from the West Barns Village Hall committee and saw a need for people getting together, getting people out and about again.

“It was a space for people coming together and the idea was for people to come together and chat and have some food as well.

“We started almost two years ago and we have been going since.”

As well as food and a chat, Bite and Blether has offered up a range of different activities to those going along.

Indoor curling – or kurling – has proven a popular addition, while live music has been provided and chair-based yoga as well.

Hazel, who lives in the village with husband Alan, was pleased to say that the initiative was going from strength to strength.

She said: “It has changed.

“When we started, we were probably getting about a dozen or 15 people.

“Over the last year, it has really grown and we have settled now at about 30 to 35 people most weeks.

“People come and go – some come for the two hours, others drop in and have a chat and go.”