ONE HUNDRED people left Rose Hill Community Centre yesterday with not only a belly full of laughs but also stuffed to the brim with turkey, roasties and all the trimmings.

Thanks to more than £4,000 worth of donations and another 200 donated gifts, Oxford employment charity and social enterprise Aspire hosted a Christmas meal for its service users.

The charity, based in Osney Lane, has been running its A Place at the Table Christmas campaign to bring together several groups over a festive feast.

It was set up to make sure 'everybody gets a place at the dinner table this Christmas' and nobody is left out because of homelessness, addiction or unemployment.

Helen Mariner, of Aspire Oxford, said: “The day was a big success.

“There was about100 people sitting down for the Christmas meal with everyone from our community transport programmes, other clients and also those from our homeless pathways - so it was a real mix of disadvantaged groups which is what we wanted.

“It was lovely, lots of people sad how much they enjoyed the day and said how nice it was to know somebody cares and is thinking about them.”

Aspire works towards social inclusion across a number of projects and this year wanted to reflect that whilst bringing together all its clients over one big Christmas lunch at Rose Hill Community Centre yesterday.

Last year the charity worked with more than 1,000 through a number of programmes including supporting people including the elderly by providing a community bus, supporting those who have had an addiction, refugees and also reformed prisoners by helping them get into work.

The Place at the Table campaign aims to raise £8,000 towards its service and includes the meal put on yesterday.

So far, the Christmas appeal has raised £4,500 and the charity hopes to hit the £8,000 mark by the end of the year to supports its efforts going forwards.

Ms Mariner added: “We had an incredible response from volunteers and donations of gifts from right across the county as far as Hook Norton.

“We had more than 200 gifts donated which was absolutely amazing, plus 45 volunteers giving up their time on the day.

“We have had amazing support and a special thanks goes to the Co-op which provided food and Unipart which donated £500 towards the event and also provided a number of volunteers.

“It was really nice to have everyone come together and celebrate over a Christmas meal.”

Aspire's community transport manager Tony Tinkham yesterday ferried 14 pensioners to the meal in the charity's two new buses, then sat down with them at lunch.

He said: "It was a great day.

"The atmosphere in the hall was really great, everyone was chatting away and people were talking to others from different organisations.

"The food was wonderful as well."

Although the lunch was a 'day off from work' in a sense, Mr Tinkham said it 'absolutely' carried on the spirit of all the charity's year-round work.