A former IT contractor from Zimbabwe is at the heart of efforts to deliver free school meals during the coronavirus emergency.
Stuart Aitken takes food to homes across the Stewartry along with colleague John Collins from Kirkcudbright.
The pair run one of three refrigerated vans operating from the council-run distribution hub at Castle Douglas High School.
A team of hard-working cooks and packers prepare the meals for dispatch on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Stuart and John take boxes of lunches to around 50 remote households, often to a warm welcome.
“At one house a little girl was so happy and shouting ‘mummy, mummy the food’s here’”, Stuart told the News.
“It was quite an emotional moment. When I got back to the van I had to tell John I had something in my eye.
“Everywhere we go people are pleased to see us. We have been met with nothing but a lot of happiness.
“People have been waving at us from their windown and we get a lot of thumbs up signs. It has been fantastic.”
He added: “We put the boxes down, knock on the door, step back three or four metres and wait until the people take delivery,
“Quite a few like to have a wee blether. Having somebody to talk to is a good thing for mental health.”
The duo’s route takes in a huge landward area from the Ayrshire border down The Glenkens to Auchencairn and Lochruttom.
The other vans cover Kirkcudbrightshire’s bigger villages and towns and points in between.
“The job’s got us to some very remote locations – the back of Lochinvar for example,” Stuart said. “We have quite a few little farms to do, often far apart.
“My colleague John was born and brought up in Kirkcudbright and he’s never been to some of these places. You can enjoy the scenery when you’re at it.”
Stuart, who left Zimbabwe at 19 to follow a successful IT career in England, set up home in Tywnholm in 2007.
A spell as a superfast broadband contractor with BT followed until he took a package and quit.
“I normally drive one of the buses taking adults with learning disabilities to the resource centre in Castle Douglas,” Stuart said.
I did not want to go back to my former career. It’s much more enjoyable getting out to parts of Galloway that people would not normally see.”
Stuart’s IT background came in handy for working out delivery routes.
“I worked out how to upload them on to Google maps,” he said. “If you are lost you can follow the coordinates and the map will take you right there. It’s pin-point accurate for the vast majority.”
The mobile service is constantly adapting to new demands and expanded further last week.
Stuart said: “We have started a shield run with boxes containing £30 of shopping. They are going to elderly and vulnerable and elderly people who are shielding at home.”
“A lot of staff are in Castle Douglas High School very early in the morning, getting the boxes made up and meals made. We are doing what we can in extremely difficult circumstances.”
