THE scar stretching from Marek Witowski’s ear to his Adam’s apple marks the day he took a knife to his throat.

After trying to end his life using car exhaust fumes and sleeping pills, this was his third (unsuccessful) suicide attempt.

It might seem odd that he would show this to show this to a complete stranger, especially at a dinner table, but for the 55-year-old the wound serves as a reminder of how far he has come in such a short space of time.

The fact that he credits Barrow Community Kitchen helping him to rebuild his life is a testament to the incredible work carried out by its volunteers week in, week out.

“Everybody has made me so welcome here, we’re all friends and there’s no judgment,” said Marek, who has been a regular at St Matthew’s Community Hall in Highfield Road since the kitchen was set up.

Marek has gone from living in a hostel to a council property and reconnecting with family. He also has a job at McDonald’s in Hollywood Park, Barrow, but with only 16 hours a week things are still tight.

The guarantee of one hot meal every week means the difference between being able to afford heating, or Christmas presents for his grandchildren - things which, under this roof, are considered life’s luxuries.

Today the ‘soup kitchen’ is celebrating Christmas. Tables are set, decorations are plentiful, cards and greetings are being exchanged and children are laughing and playing.

The buffet is full of festive food. Hungry eyes widen as lunch is served, and gratitude wash over a ravenous child as she tucks in, provides a stark reminder of the desperate situation many of those who attend are in.

For young parents Alice and Shane Opie, and one-year-old daughter Amelia, the weekly visit to the community hall - open every Sunday from 3pm until 5pm - is often the only time the whole family can fill their stomachs.

“We get £250 a week for the three of us and that has to cover everything. I always put Amelia first so a lot of the time I just go without,” said Alice.

“For the last couple of days we have been living off pasta, so it has been a godsend.”

While foodbanks offer emergency supplies to those in need, social interaction can often start and ends with the exchange of a parcel. Not here.

“I sometimes feel embarrassed going to the foodbank but here it’s really relaxed and we are friends,” adds Alice, 23.

Preventing loneliness and isolation among the most deprived was one of the key objectives of Barrow Community Kitchen when it was set up just over a year ago by John Wright and Sharon Foden.

From around two people per week, it has grown to 60 to 70 people and expanded its service to Walney’s Leonard Cheshire Centre in Central Drive.

Another volunteer, Gaynor Beck, drives around collecting those who struggle to make it by themselves.

Today the kitchen is merry mayhem. Sporting a pair of reindeer ears, Sharon whizzes around buttering bread, serving up plates, sorting gifts and somehow stopping to make sure everyone is OK along the way.

She said: “When you see everyone together you understand what it means to people.

“Word is getting out there, but we know there are lots more people out there who are in need.”

Donations come from the local branches of Morrisons and Tesco, and volunteers have also been overwhelmed by donations from local people. In a particularly heart-warming moment at the Christmas party, gifts donated by Barrow Rotary Club are handed out.

But it is not all smiles.

When a 46-year-old woman from Barrow arrives in floods of tears, the Christmas bubble is momentarily burst.

The Department for Work and Pensions thinks she’s got more people in her household than she says. Her benefits have been sanctioned over the Christmas period and government workers insist any appeal will have to wait until after January 4.

And Alice, who has severe dyspraxia and mental health problems stemming from trauma she suffered as a child, tells me that she recently had her disability benefit stopped because she failed to fill out a form correctly.

These stark truths are the reason why, at the start of next year, the kitchen is holding a screening of the Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake at The Forum in Duke Street, Barrow.

The film centres on the story of a carpenter who suffers a heart attack and needs the help of the state for the first time, and highlights the difficulty of navigating the welfare system in Britain today. Something which volunteers believe will get worse when the new system of Universal Credit is rolled out.

“Barrow is full of Daniel Blakes,” says Sharon.

“A huge amount of people who come here have had their benefits sanctioned and they’re just absolutely desperate. We are only open two days a week but people sometimes depend on us."