A SOCIAL enterprise which helps people who have “lost their way” get back into work will serve up food to audiences prior to each performance of the York Mystery Plays .

Organisers of the Plays, which will be staged in the Museum Gardens throughout August, have appointed Create as caterers.

They will serve food such as sandwiches and strawberries and cream during the day to ordinary visitors to the gardens and also to people arriving to see the Plays, with tables and chairs set up for dining. A spokesman for Create said it helped people gain skills to become employable and feel they have a purpose again.

Through the Create Academy, it trained people who had been homeless, marginalised or vulnerable and supported them back into work. “We offer a future to people who want a hand up, not a handout,” he said. “Every penny we make goes into making a real difference to people’s lives.”

He said the three founders of Create met while helping out at a drop-in centre in Leeds.

“They all understood the power of work to change people’s lives, yet they also understood that if someone is living on the margins of society, the chances are they’ll need support and encouragement to become ‘work ready’. “