Hale Community Centre has been awarded the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey’s Certificate of Recognition.

It comes in appreciation of its service supporting the local community during the pandemic.

The award will be presented at the community centre on September 7 by Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey Robert H Douglas CBE.

Cathy Burroughs, the centre manager, said: "When the pandemic started we thought ’what can we do to keep the connection to the community going?’.

"Our work usually involves running groups so when that was shut down we were trying to think what was needed from the local community."

From this, the centre set up resources to help support their community through the pandemic.

The ’Share Farnham’ community store allowed people to donate items for entertainment such as instruments, toys, games and dress-up items that were all quarantined and given to new people.

She said: "It became very clear that people wanted contact with other human beings. Talking to someone outside of their bubble became equally as important as collecting new items."

The centre also launched the ’Community Fridge’, a project with Waitrose, Lidl and Tesco, which donated food that could no longer be sold but was still good to use.

This was then distributed to the communities in an effort to reduce waste.

When schools were closed this allowed the centre to provide around 325 meals to 32 families.

Cathy said: "We’re just really grateful. We’re here to serve the community and we have a small team of staff so we really couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers - it really is a team effort.

"All in all we tried to just be there for our local community for whatever they needed and just be a friendly face."