HUNDREDS of elderly dale residents are getting free meals delivered to their homes each week thanks to a new scheme by Teesdale Day Clubs.
The charity put a halt to its weekly luncheons at ten different village venues when the coronavirus lockdown started last year, but thanks to support from County Durham Community Foundation hot meals are now being delivered to members’ homes. Some 88 meals are prepared at The Hub, in Barnard Castle, each Monday and a further 57 at Mickleton Village hall each Thursday.
Day clubs chef Tracey Turnbull said: “Take up from members has been great, and we have had many lovely messages from them. One Evenwood member said the meals ‘just remind me of lunch club’.
“This has been a great way for club leaders and volunteers to keep in touch with our members. Our volunteers have been brilliant, going above and beyond.”
Teesdale Day Clubs strategic manager Andrea Hobbs added: “The funding from County Durham Community Foundation helped us to launch this new project in January just at the point when lockdown was feeling unbearable for many of our members, especially with the added winter weather.
“Of course, it doesn’t replace the social contact that happens in our usual lunch clubs, but it does go a long way to giving people a real boost and relieves some of the isolation.”
