Photo from left: Sally Carr, Gwynneth Crawford, Rev Gerry Dillon, Gordon Munn and Fiona Munn from St Luke’s Church

St Luke the Evangelist in Auchmuty, Glenrothes has received a National Lottery grant of £375,235 to help transform part of their building to create a community café, kitchen and social hub and to run it for the next three years.

The facility will be called Peace ‘n’ Jam and it will benefit around 500 people in the community, as well as creating 20 volunteering opportunities. It will allow people, many of whom would otherwise be socially isolated, to come together to build relationships and benefit from low cost nutritious meals.

Peace ‘n’ Jam will provide upgraded kitchen, toilet and disabled facilities as well as creating 2 new meeting rooms and it will allow us to benefit the local community in so many ways and serve as a focal point for everyone to feel they can access.

The cafe will run throughout the school holidays, allowing breakfast clubs to continue and providing meals to families who would have been in receipt of free school meals during term time.

It will also provide a base for a monthly youth cafe for local youngsters, cookery workshops for young parents and support for vulnerable and at-risk families.

Further match-funding has been secured from Fife Environmental Trust and we are awaiting the results from applications for additional match-funding, as well as continuing to seek other funding streams.

The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland chairwoman Maureen McGinn, has said: “The funding will make a big difference where it is needed most, and I wish Peace ‘n’ Jam every success.”

Jenny Gilruth, MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes, has also lodged her congratulations for the award in a motion to the Scottish Parliament, and wished St Luke’s every success with the project and its other work.