A giant pumpkin grown from a seed bought in Lidl will help feed hundreds of hungry Fifers this autumn.
Amazed volunteers at Leslie Community Pantry received the enormous donation last week.
And they were initially stumped by what to do with it after it took two of them to heave it into their van.
Now, however, they’ve decided to raise cash for the organisation by asking locals to guess how much it weighs.
Then the strongest members of the team will transfer it to another charity so they can make a gigantic vat of soup for the community.
Pantry chairwoman Gayle Wilson said she was gobsmacked when she saw the pumpkin’s size.
She said: “It’s absolutely massive.”
Husband ‘defeated’ by giant pumpkin
Gayle has had the pumpkin since the weekend.
“One of our supporters, a lady called Nicola who lives in Ladybank, got in touch to say she had a really big pumpkin growing in her garden,” she said.
“She asked if we could put it to good use.”
Gayle looked at a photo of the pumpkin and thought it looked quite ordinary.
But she added: “I went to collect it with my husband and we couldn’t believe the size – and the weight – of it!”
Even Gayle’s husband, who she describes as a strong man, struggled with it.
“He was defeated by the pumpkin,” she laughed. “It took two of us to move it.”
She added: “It actually started as a seed from Lidl and it just grew and grew and grew.
“Nicola was sad to see it go because she became quite attached to it. She fed it every day.”
Gayle now plans to organise a family Halloween party in Leslie and will charge guests 50p to guess the pumpkin’s weight.
All funds raised will aid Leslie Community Pantry‘s work.
Pumpkin soup for people in need
The pumpkin will then be donated to New Hope Community Trust, which has just opened at the former Greenside Hotel in Leslie.
“We don’t have facilities to make soup but the new charity will take it for us,” Gayle said.
“They’re starting community meals and volunteers from the pantry will support them.
There is so much need out there.”
Gayle Wilson, Leslie Community Pantry.
“Times are so difficult just now with the cost of living crisis and hopefully this will help the whole area.”
Leslie Community Pantry is similar to a foodbank but people do not need to be referred.
It supports more than 200 families and numbers are rising.
“We’ve had an influx in the last two weeks as concerns grow about the cost of living and Christmas,” said Gayle.
“We get quite deflated when it’s busy as it means there’s so much need out there.”
Conversation