Share Alike in East Kilbride town centre, made a request to the Community Wish List for some catering equipment suitable for a community kitchen/cafe and larder so it could store and prepare more food as part of its range of support services which reaches out to around 1200 people each week.

Run entirely by volunteers, the community hub was hoping any equipment they got would allow them to accept more donations from local supermarkets. So they were hoping for any refrigerated/frozen storage facilities and kitchen utensils to so they could store more surplus food.

Share Alike founding volunteer Annmarie Campbell said: “When asking for some food display or hot food holders from the Community Wish List to help us feed more folk in different ways we knew it was a long shot.

“So, we were overwhelmed with the generous range of catering equipment donated by Maxi Construction Ltd.

“It was so much more than we could have wished for. We have not only opened a fab deli section in our community hub but have been able to upgrade our community kitchen and storage area.

“We could never have afforded such an improvement without this support.”

Maxi Construction Ltd donated a range of hot and cold food display units/fridges and kitchen utensils, other equipment and fryers.

Lisa Aitken, Compliance Manager at Maxi Construction Ltd, said: “We were delighted to be able to reuse commercial kitchen equipment released from a Government Property Agency (GPA) Project in East Kilbride.

“We were only able to achieve this by working with the GPA and South Lanarkshire Council to identify free equipment for possible benefactors. We were assisted in the removal, storage, and distribution by James Scott (Kitchen Engineers) Ltd.”

As a result, several other community groups across South Lanarkshire have now also benefitted from the donation of much needed equipment which might otherwise have gone to landfill or recycling.

The Community Wish List is supported by the council’s Community Engagement Team.

Chair of the council's Finance and Corporate Resources Committee, Councillor Lesley McDonald, said: "I would like to thank Maxi Construction Ltd and all the other companies who have so generously assisted with requests submitted to the Community Wish List.

“It is great to see so many organisations getting behind the aims of the wish list to bring so many great benefits to local groups."

Local community groups can still submit a wish to the community wish list.

To find out more, go to the council website, send an email, or call 0303 123 1017.

Please note there are no guarantees that every request will be selected, nor can there be a timeframe given of when or if requests will be taken forward, as the process depends on contractors and suppliers choosing a suitable and feasible cause to support.