Help needed at lunch club
A scheme that helps older people continue to live in their own homes is appealing for more volunteers.
Southwell Live at Home Scheme, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, holds coffee mornings and luncheon clubs and provides a befriending service for its 104 members.
More volunteers are needed for the luncheon club, which meets at Burgage Close, Southwell, on Thursdays.
Up to 22 people attend the luncheon club and about 30 attend one at King’s Court on Wednesdays.
The members are aged between 70 to 102, and the volunteers range from 17 to in their 80s.
Each member is provided with a main course, such as pork casserole with potato and green beans, followed by a dessert, such as orange sponge and custard, for £2.15. They can have tea or coffee for an extra 20p.
Three or four people work together at each luncheon club, where they set the tables, heat the food which is delivered chilled by Nottinghamshire County Council, serve the meals, clear away and wash up.
Mrs Avy Slinger, of Westhorpe, has been a volunteer at the luncheon club for more than 20 years.
She said: “I just love the people who come. They really seem to enjoy it.”
Mrs Josephine Burroughs (76) of Springfield Road, Southwell has been attending the King’s Court luncheon club for about six years.
She said: “I am a widow so it gets me out of cooking one meal a week.
“It is a change to be waited on and it means there are no pots to wash up.”
Mrs Ivorine Butler (91) of King’s Court, Southwell, said: “I come for the company and a good dinner.
“It is the highlight of Wednesday for me.”
Mrs Nicola Ebdon, the scheme manager, said: “Without the volunteers we would have to close — they are that vital to the running of the scheme.”
She said: “It is a place where they can gather with friends and eat together rather than being on their own.
“Some people living on their own struggle with cooking or won’t bother to cook something for themselves.”
Mrs Ebdon said: “It is hugely important for people to have a hot meal.
“Without it they are not getting the right vitamins and minerals and their health fails.”
She said: “Getting together with friends lifts their mood and helps people stop feeling isolated and lonely.
“In Southwell and surrounding villages you can’t just hop on a bus to go to visit friends.
“People can feel very isolated and for some, it is really debilitating.”
Volunteers do not need an experience and first aid or food hygiene training is provided.
Mrs Ebdon said volunteers needed to be motivated to want to help people and should enjoy spending time with others.
She said the scheme was always looking for volunteer drivers who use their own vehicles to take members to and from coffee mornings. They are paid mileage.
Coffee mornings are held at King’s Court and Our Lady of Victories Church Hall, Halam Road, on alternate Tuesdays from 10.30am-11.45am.
Anyone who would like more information or to become a volunteer should contact 01636 816565.
