The Okehampton Community Kitchen has beaten thousands of South West businesses to win the FSB South West Community Award in recognition of its work.

At an event last week members of the community kitchen went up to collect the award following the announcement that the community interest company had won the community award out of an initial 10,000 applications from across the South West including Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Avon.

Rebecca Green, organiser of the Okehampton Community Kitchen, said: ‘We’re quite impressed. We didn’t expect to win in a million years because there were thousands of entries.

‘These are proper business awards. They’re not like these Facebook likes and shares and “nominate your favourite local business” - they are proper industry awards.’

Mrs Green admitted the day was very hectic meaning they arrived with only five minutes to spare. ‘It was the quickest change ever in Costa,’ she added.

Other FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) awards’ categories included Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Family Business of the Year and the Sustainability Award but all winners will not be officially announced until all FSB award ceremonies across the country have taken place.

The South West award results is one of four regional events to have taken place so far, which includes those in Yorkshire and Humber, the North West and Scotland.

There are eight more regions to go and the FSB will announce the winners for the North East of England tomorrow (March 10) with results from the East Midlands and East of England announced on March 15 and 17 respectively. The remaining regions include Northern Ireland, the West Midlands, Wales, London and the South East.

The FSB is a not-for-profit organisation, established over 45 years ago, which supports small businesses across the UK offering its members a range of services including financial and legal advice, HR support and providing networking working groups.

The Okehampton Community Kitchen has recently expanded its food support services to offer families and individuals a sustainable foodbank, cooking lessons and shopping advice in response to the increasing number of residents struggling with the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Mrs Green’s new service opened at the end of January and also provides cleaning supplies, and children’s toys to those unable to afford them.

The initiative grew following a public meeting in November last year, organised by Mrs Green, in which members of the community gathered to discuss ways of tackling food insecurity in the area.

At the meeting, which Mrs Green described as very successful, numerous suggestions were raised to provide more help to those struggling, including the introduction of community pantries, recipe packs and shopping plans which provides families with the skills to create a healthy weekly shopping plan with minimal expenses.