Meet the Midhurst 81-year-old cooking Christmas dinner for over 100 homeless people
'Mrs M' will make 200 stuffing balls and pigs in blankets, and around fifty pounds of potatoes, carrots and parsnips
An 81-year-old woman from Midhurst has started prep on a Christmas dinner which will feed over a hundred homeless people.
Katharine Minchin - affectionately known as 'Mrs M' - is making 200 stuffing balls and pigs in blankets, and prepping nearly 50 pounds worth of potatoes, carrots and parsnips.
The huge operation began two days ago, with a local butcher turning the turkey into slices, de-boning it and stuffing it's legs with sausage meat, while vegetables will be chopped and prepped today in a mission hoped to finish up by 1pm.
The meals will then be hand delivered to hostels tomorrow with instructions illustrating how to assemble the perfect Christmas day roast.
Mrs M said the tradition, which she completes for charity Stonepillow, began over two decades ago, when she and her husband didn't want their children to worry about transporting the grandkids across the country on Christmas day.
"We told our children, let's save them that embarrassing conversation in August about who's going to have the parents at Christmas, and we will do our own thing.
"Because I was already doing things with Stonepillow, I went into the day centre and said, would you like me to do Christmas?"
She told Greatest Hits Radio that using her Christmas to help others is a "very satisfying thing to do" and "the atmosphere is lovely."
In terms of her own Christmas dinner, she explained that she and a friend usually take turns cooking for one another: "She had her 90th birthday the other day, so she's feeling a bit frail.
"And so I will get a little turkey, stuff it, prepare it for her, and then she will cook it and we will have a meal.
"We mop up one or two others who would otherwise be on their own. So we shall probably have a meal about 4:30. Lovely."
She's now encouraging anyone who would like to volunteer throughout the year to get involved.