A PASTRY chef left her job at a city restaurant and now cooks 1,000 meals a day for refugees.

Alice Russell left her job at The Old Rectifying House, in North Parade, Worcester, and signed up with the aid group Hot Food Idomeni.

The 24-year-old, from Worcester, joined the group in July and travelled with them from Greece to Serbia, where she fed hundreds in freezing conditions.

Miss Russell said: "We started cooking at the main squat in Belgrade and taking food up to the military barracks, cooking 1,000 meals per day.

"The barracks were opened up due to the -20C temperatures.

"It was difficult when we had the really cold spell. Guys were walking around in trainers and jeans.

"The youngest might have been eight-years-old and there were also teenagers by themselves queuing up for food."

Miss Russell said the numbers of refugees they have been feeding has been increasing since September.

The volunteers prepare the food at a rented car wash and then take it to the squat, which is near a disused railway station in Belgrade.

She was inspired to help after her parents, who are former Voluntary Service Overseas volunteers, went out to help refugees in Dunkirk, France.

Their experience inspired her to go on a one-week trip to Greece in April, with the Worcestershire refugee charity People in Motion.

"I got back and felt like I was in a position to volunteer long-term. I gave up my job and flat," she said.

She went back to Greece on Friday, July 1, and joined the Hot Food Idomeni group, which cooks meals for refugees.

But she moved to Serbia later that month as refugees were moved into military camps in Greece and informal camps were shut down.

She added that the group runs an efficient service as they buy vegetables in bulk loads to make soup and other dishes.

"We buy a tonne of fresh vegetables a week," she said.

"It's a seven day operation. I may take on day off a week or some times a morning or an afternoon."

As one of three chefs in her group she makes meals for the refugees, and also cleans the equipment and prepares vegetables.

She also said another humanitarian group, called Are You Syrious, donated a food trailer to Hot Food Idomeni.

Miss Russell has come back to Worcester for a short break and is heading back to Belgrade on Friday, February 24.