A BOLD bid has been launched to dish up 800 meals a day for six weeks to help people in need during the coronavirus crisis.

The Salvation Army in Port Glasgow is joining forces with taskforce Inverclyde Community Action Response Group (ICARG) to try and meet the ambitious target.

Lieutenant Ian Arthur is helping to promote the appeal to get people to donate to a JustGiving page to buy food for the project.

He told the Telegraph: "The idea is to get partners and local businesses together with one central kitchen to prepare food to go out to local hubs which will be distributed by the local Covid-19 volunteers.

"The Salvation Army here in King Street is one of the hubs.

"People expect to see our red shield when a crisis like this happens and obviously we want to be a part of it.

"It's in our DNA.

"A lot of our members are stuck inside and cannot get out.

"There is still a need to come alongside the community and live out our faith in that work."

Ian says the fundraising is going well but there is still a bit to go, with a target of £5,000 to make the project become a reality.

Louise Hunter of, ICARG, said: "We have been working in conjunction with the Salvation Army to raise funds to buy food to allow meal production on a large scale.

"All the community can be involved - if every household in Inverclyde gave 50p to £1 then we would be able to feed 800 people a day for six weeks.

"Many of the community centres are already producing meals on a daily basis but the demand is rising and the kitchens are working at maximum capacity.

"We needed to find an industrial kitchen that can cope with producing up to 800 meals daily seven days a week and have now identified one.

"Meals will be distributed to the community centres for onward delivery to those in the community who need support.

"We are taking advantage of all the council and government funds as they become available, but we do need to fundraise separately in order to supplement the funding."

Louise says she would welcome local businesses getting behind the project by making a donation.

They should contact Louise on 07789174508 or email louise@creativeinverclyde.com and if anyone wants to contribute they can do so at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/port-glasgow-salvation-army?