Congleton has a long established ‘Big Lunch Club’ serving meals to socially isolated people by volunteers providing lunch at 2 locations – United Reform Church and St John’s Community Centre.
During the pandemic these meals have been provided via a ‘meals on wheels’ service, up to 80 meals per week, and 96 Christmas Lunches delivered on Christmas Eve. The food is prepared by The Old Saw Mill on Back River Street.
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Participants pay £4 per meal for a main and pud delivered chilled with cooking and allergen information. Congleton Town Council support the scheme by delivering the chilled food on Friday mornings.
We always look for ways to extend this service to as many socially isolated people in the town as we can find, but we never expected this kind of communication via Australia!
One of the scheme organisers, Alison Wright, told us: ‘I spoke to a Congleton lady last night. Do you know how she found out about the meals?
Her granddaughter in Australia saw details on Facebook and spoke to her mum in Bristol who then put the lady in touch with the Town Council.’
How about that as a demonstration of the positive power of social media!
If you know of someone that you think would benefit from such a meal each week, then ring 01260 270350, ext 1 to apply, we would love to serve you!
Peter Aston commented ‘provision of healthy food is top of health and social agendas currently and the Old Saw Mill is proud to play its part by providing this extension to the town’s Big Lunch Club that delivers a small but significant step towards providing people with one healthy meal per week.’