A GLASGOW MSP stepped in to help save a community Christmas dinner after it couldn’t afford to pay for a repair to a large oven.

Ivan McKee, Provan SNP MSP read about the Everlasting Foodbank and Freedom Café’s plight in the Evening Times as the organisers were worried they would have to cancel the Christmas Eve dinner for 30 local people.

Their commercial oven broke down and were quoted more than £300 for a repair, which it didn’t have.

Mr Mckee who donates half his MSP salary to his Enterprising Provan charity for local groups, contacted the group to tell them to go ahead with the repair and he would cover the cost.

He has since handed over a cheque for £327 to the community group to pay the repair bill.

The community group were delighted with the help they received.

Lewa Thomas Manager and Community Development worker at the Freedom Cafe said: ‘This donation was an absolute life-saver, I was literally at my wits end.

“The companies we’d called said they couldn’t manage to get the parts before Christmas Eve, some

even wanted a £200 up-front call out fee and of course at that point we couldn’t commit to that.

“So when the call came from the office of local MSP Ivan McKee, after he’d seen the story in the Evening Times, offering to cover all the repair costs to say it was a huge relief is an understatement.”

Once they knew they had the funding covered they were able to get a repair firm out the same day.

They are now waiting for the permanent repair to be done

Ms Thomas said: “Freedom Cafe is very grateful to the Evening Times who spotted our social media post and highlighted our plight and of course to Ivan Mckee MSP who saw it and committed to fund the repairs from his Enterprising Provan scheme.”

Mr McKee said: ‘I am delighted to have been able to help the Freedom Cafe host their Christmas Eve lunch.

“The all year round work they do in my Provan constituency is a vital community service.”