THE kindness of strangers was proven in Holsworthy recently when a Waitrose employee helped out a family of six who recently moved to the area and found themselves without any means off cooking a proper meal.

After relocating from Upton in Bude to Halwill, Simon and Jami Harris, who own Morwenna Photography in Bude, along with their four children, one of whom is Holsworthy Carnival Queen, found themselves in a spot off bother, having to survive for a few days on microwave meals and takeout food while they waited for an electrician to install an oven in their new property.

Mr Harris decided they needed a new plan and went along to his local Waitrose store in Holsworthy, in search of an alternative to their current microwave meal situation.

While in the store he spoke to one member of staff and enquired as to whether they had any disposable barbecues in their ‘out of season’ stock section — much to his surprise the employee soon returned with two large disposable barbecues and a packet of sausages as a ‘gesture of good will’.

Mrs Harris said they wanted to thank the employee for their kind gesture and for showing such incredible community spirit.

She said: “We had just moved into our new property in Halwill from Upton in Bude and hadn’t managed to arrange delivery of our cooker in time. We managed the first few days on takeouts and microwave meals but were starting to run out of options with four children to feed.

“My husband went into Waitrose after a long day of decorating the old property ready for it to go onto the market and after collecting our children from Holsworthy Community College. He asked if by chance they had any barbecues in the back of store with their out of season stock and they came out with two large ‘party sized’ barbecues and a pack of fresh sausages and said they were a good will gesture from them to us.”

Mrs Harris told the Post that she had known nothing about her husband’s ‘crazy plan to have a barbecue in January’ until he return home from his shopping trip, she said: “I knew nothing about it (even his crazy plan to have a barbecue in January) until he walked in the door and I was so touched by their kind gesture. The children were all thrilled too.

“We didn’t know the member of staff‘s name but wanted to thank them as it’s been a very stressful move and I thought it delightful that they had been so kind and shown true community spirit.”