Moray business K's Coffee Shop on a mission to ensure nobody is lonely this Christmas
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A BUSINESS in Moray is on a mission to ensure that nobody in the local community feels lonely this Christmas.
K's Coffee Shop, based in Forres, will open its doors on Christmas Day to those who may feel lonely or can't afford to cook Christmas dinner themselves.
The business will provide food for people free of charge including soup, turkey sandwiches and mince pies as a way of giving back to the community after opening in July this year.
Sue Farish, who runs the business alongside her sister-in-law Stephanie Wallace, said: "We're not opening to sell food or anything like that. We're opening purely to provide food for people who are maybe feeling lonely on Christmas Day, can't afford to cook for themselves or feeling the brunt of the cost of living crisis.
"Maybe people who are having to work could pop by during their lunch as well like carers who can't have the day off.
"It won't be a full Christmas meal but we just thought it would be something good to do for people in the Forres area as the community have been so good to us since we opened."
Sue, who worked in banking for 37 years, and Stephanie, who was an office manager, opened the shop after Sue's husband Kevin died suddenly.
After getting to grips with a hectic first week, the pair haven't looked back and have fully embraced their roles as business owners.
And, despite being a relatively new business in the town, Sue says the pair had the idea of giving back two months ago.
She said: "The first week was an eye opener that's for sure. After the first day we were thinking what have we done.
"It was our first venture into something like this but we've totally loved it and we've got a lot of regulars now.
"We've been thinking about doing this for a couple of months.
"My husband passed away suddenly. That's one of the reasons we opened the coffee shop so for us it's a nice way for us to get together as a whole family as well.
"Personally for me, I'm not a Christmas person so to be able to do something on Christmas Day to help others, that's really the motivation behind it. It will actually be quite helpful for us in that sense.
"We don't want people to feel lonely and we want to help people having a hard time as I know Christmas can be a really depressing time of the year for a lot of people."
Sue and Stephanie say their staff members have also expressed an interest in helping out on the day although opening times have not been decided yet.
Sue added: "We just want to give back. That's the main focus. To help people who may be suffering so pop in and stay for as long as you want."
