THE SALVATION Army is gearing up to serve Christmas dinner to dozens of people, and provide hampers to families in need.

The Newport centre will be open on Christmas Day, where volunteers will provide a free festive hot meal and pudding to anyone who may be homeless, elderly, or on their own.

Families in need can also take part.

Last year, the team served 161 dinners on Christmas Day and provided 140 families with hampers.

The service is looking for donations of carrots, sprouts, stuffing, pigs in blankets, parsnips, roast potatoes, gravy, turkey, peas, Christmas pudding, cream, custard, mince pies, milk, tea, coffee and Christmas cake.

They would also like non-alcoholic fizzy drink, flavoured water and fruit juice.

Any suitable gifts for men, ladies and children can be donated too, and goodies for the hampers, which should be tins of vegetables and meat, pasta and other non-perishables.

They are looking for anyone who can provide some entertainment, and volunteers to help in the preparation of the vegetables on Christmas Eve, which usually takes a couple of hours with a team of people.

They need people on Christmas Day to help get the room ready, and people to help serve guests during the meal, then clear away afterwards.

There is also a need for some guests to be collected from their homes, and taken home again afterwards.

Those who are busy at Christmas can help prepare the hampers in the week leading up to the big day.

Anyone who can help should contact kay.willett@salvationarmy.org.uk or phone 07884 562898.

There are several drop-off points for donations, especially in the Ryde and Shanklin Salvation Army charity shops and

Newport Salvation Army Centre.