THE kind-hearted Kelty women distributing food to the vulnerable and elderly reckon they'll have dished up 5,000 meals by the end of the month.

A remarkable community effort during lockdown has seen an army of cooks and bakers produce hearty and tasty fare which has then been delivered to doorsteps throughout the village.

It's mushroomed in size to 80 meals a day, now three times a week, but they've confirmed in a Facebook post that it's drawing to a close.

Andrea Hughes, 61, of Cocklaw Street, helped start Kelty Meals and explained: "It's stopping at the end of June. We won't be able to continue as all our cooks and bakers are going back to work, they won't have time to help us.

"Hopefully by that time, more people will be out and about and it'll get a little easier.

"We never expected it to come to this. When we started it was for friends and neighbours, those that didn't have anyone or were stuck indoors all day, but we've been doing 80 meals a day.

"We work full-time and we're all shattered!

"By the time we finish it'll have been going for 16 weeks. At the last count it was about 3,000 meals, by the end of June it'll be about 5,000.

"We've loved it though, I don't regret it one bit and I can't get over how many good friends we've made through this."

She continued: "At the start we thought we'd make a pot of soup and some stovies for our neighbours and family.

"Then someone would ask 'Can my mum be included?' and then it'd be 'Can my gran get a meal?' and through word of mouth it just grew.

"My sister Frances (McMillan) was making the meals but then everyone started helping.

"It's soup, stovies, salad, mince and tatties, brilliant home-made food really, there's normally two or three options and it's all free. We don't charge anything for it.

"We call them 'our people', those that we deliver to, and they've been so grateful. It's been heartening."

Andrea, who works as a security officer at a homeless hostel in Kirkcaldy, has been helped by friends, Susan Forrester and Lisa Callaghan, to get the meals where they're needed.

She said: "In the morning, when I get in from night shift, I visit everyone that's been cooking and baking.

"Today I had five people to pick food up, we go to deliver the meals at 1pm and get back about 3pm.

"Lots of people have given us donations of food and money, we probably couldn't do it otherwise, while Alex (Campbell) gives us free petrol so we can go and deliver.

"The people here have been excellent, Kelty is a great community."