A BANK literally helped bring home the bread for a group of trainee chefs from a homeless hostel in Worcester.

Four trainees from the kitchen project at St Paul’s Hostel in Worcester rose to the occasion and were invited to make and serve canapés for an event at the city's Handelsbanken. Chef Matt Williams said: "This was a great achievement from everyone involved and the trainees thoroughly enjoyed speaking to guests and the event gave them a huge boost in their self-confidence."

The collection of £1,500 raised at and after the event will go towards further training in the kitchen project. Core staff costs in the Life skills project, of which the kitchen project is a part, are funded by the BIG Lottery however most activity and training costs are funded through public donations.

Staff from Handelsbanken were so inspired by the event that they then collected donations of food and personal hygiene items for use by people using the Night Assessment Centre over the winter months. Phil Dutton, branch manager at Handelsbanken Worcester, said: “St Paul’s do a fantastic job for the county, not only in terms of providing accommodation for the homeless but also in terms of integrating them back into society. The kitchen project is an outstanding example of this."

Handelsbanken was founded 142 years ago in Sweden and now has over 780 branches and more than 11,000 employees in 24 countries. Having first established a presence in the UK in 1982, today the bank manages a decentralised network of over 160 branches across the country.