Our community lunch club at Woodland has been struggling with numbers for some time. But recent funding from the PCP Happiness Hub and Point North Community Grants pot have been making a real difference.
We have been trialling our lunches at the village hall in Butterknowle and our general manager Amanda has been working hard to raise awareness for what we offer and how we support people by talking to community members from the GP practice and Patient Participation group.
Numbers are beginning to rise…
BUT we still need more people to support this lovely group.
As a small charity we are constantly up against not having sufficient funding to keep these smaller very rural clubs going. We are great at raising funds and securing small grants, and our lunch club members make a small contribution towards the costs (£8 for a delicious 3-course freshly prepared meal! that’s the same price as a couple of coffees on a good day!), but it is always short of what we actually need. Every year we wonder if we are going to have to close one or more clubs…and every year we seem to pull a few rabbits out of a few hats and manage to keep going…
If you know of anyone who would benefit from joining a friendly small local social group, we’d love to hear from you. Or perhaps it’s you sometimes feel lonely and wish there was someone around to have lunch with? Eating alone can be a necessary but not enjoyable experience if you never eat with others around you to chat and share with.
Once a member of one of our lovely lunch clubs, you also get free access to our community support service which can help with all kinds of things – the kind of things that go wrong and you have no idea who to ask for help.
In addition our lively and growing activities project offers other things in your community as well as our lunch clubs, so hav e a look at what we do and get in touch. We’re waiting to hear from you.