The spirit of Christmas was alive in Croydon this year with hundreds of volunteers helping those in need during the festive period.

Community groups, charities, churches and the council all helped a number of projects over Christmas.

The Croydon Churches Forum set up a Christmas lunch for the families at Gilroy Court on Friday, with donations coming in from individuals and businesses throughout the borough.

Pastor Damian Luke, chairman of the group and organiser of the event came up with the idea after visiting the bed and breakfast a couple of weeks ago.

More than 40 volunteers helped at the event and two professional chefs put forward their services to help cook the food.

Pastor Luke said: "When we visited we were moved with compassion and we thought we should do something now for Christmas.

"One of our councillors, Steve O’Connell dropped off more than 200 Christmas crackers for us. The people of Croydon have been so generous, we had enough mince pies to last us until 2014."

On Christmas Day, a lunch was due to be held for homeless people at the CVA centre, which was organised by Fatima Koroma, who runs Croydon Food Store.

The food that was left over from the Gilroy Court lunch was donated to Mrs Koroma’s team.

She said: "So many people wanted to get involved on Christmas day. People have been so generous. Hopefully this will be the first of many events like this.

"It really does boil down to the fact that there is a great volunteering spirit in Croydon."

Many of those who attended the lunch were told about it by one of Croydon’s homeless charities Nightwatch.

The charity, that gives out food to the homeless and vulnerable at Queen's Gardens throughout the year, has laid on festive food over the Christmas period.

A special event is held on Christmas Eve by the group, run by Jad Adams and his team.

He said: "It is never good to be homeless but it can be particularly draining at Christmas time. We want to extend some good cheer to them.

He said last year they were serenaded with carols by the service users. He said: "It was really quite moving and was in the spirit of Christmas."

Croydon Food Network, made up Croydon Council along with charities and not-for-profit groups across the borough including the Shrublands Trust, Esther Community Enterprises, Croydon Food Store and a number of churches, gathered 4,500 food items to create 250 food parcels for people in food poverty.

Croydon Commitment also made up 450 hampers to donate to needy families.