A Caithness lunch club is planning to build a new base next year to help meet its ever-growing demand.
Dunbeath Lunch Club currently has capacity for 25 people at a time, but their new premises next door to Dunbeath and District Centre will have three times the space.
The expansion – which will also offer health and wellbeing services for those across Caithness – comes when there is more need than for the service, which helps ensure people in the community are not going hungry.
Operational growth manager Daniel Macleod said that the team – which serves more than 200 lunches a week – have been seeing a more varied crowd coming through the doors in recent months due to the cost-of-living crisis.
Now he sees a mix of people, including families and younger people at the club, whereas before most people were over 55.
Dunbeath Lunch Club operates five days a week, providing hot meals to hundreds of people using food donated each month by charity Cfine.
Mr Macleod estimated more than 6,000 soups were served last year, and admits without the support of Cfine – which assists groups across the Highlands and Grampian – he doesn’t know how they would be able to meet the growing demand.
The clubs more than 200 lunches every week, and if there’s enough food left the team usually put together a twice-monthly evening meal as well.
For those in the local community that can’t make it to the club, drivers are sent with food parcels to their homes to ensure no one goes hungry.
Cfine has helped ‘massively’
Mr Macleod said: “We support a lot of families in the south-east of Caithness including single-parent families. The demand seems to be greater and it’s definitely on the rise.
“The Cfine Fareshare programme benefits us massively in lots of ways, mainly saving us money on ambient food, which we can use to serve healthy meals for the community – it’s really positive.
“It’s also about reducing waste, getting our hands on products and using them so they don’t go to waste.”
Mr Macleod believes the social aspect of the lunch club is extremely important given the small community, where people know everyone and can enjoy themselves.
Even those anxious about returning following the pandemic have returned, seizing the opportunity to reconnect with others.
Anything else left from the Cfine order after all the meals are catered for is put in the “Sharing Shack” – a container unit the community can access at their own discretion.
Tinned goods, cereals and pasta are all available for people to take. They can leave a donation, but it is not necessary.
Big Christmas Food Appeal
The Press and Journal, Evening Express, Energy Voice and Original 106 are highlighting initiatives like the Dunbeath Lunch Club as part of our ongoing food appeal.
We want to highlight the help that is out there to people struggling to feed themselves, and end the stigma around food poverty.
We’ve teamed up with Cfine to drive donations – both through our JustGiving page and Amazon wishlist – and show what their support can do for communities right across the north of Scotland.
Last week, we showed how youngsters in Cromarty use donations to run a youth cafe – learning vital life skills as they go.
We’re also celebrating the tireless work of volunteers in our communities – if you know of a group working to keep people fed, e-mail livenews@ajl.co.uk
As part of the Big Christmas Food Appeal we’re also running donation drop-off points. These are at: Press and Journal, Stoneyfield Business Park, Inverness; Moray Food Plus, High Street, Elgin; Marischal Square 1 and 2, Broad Street, Aberdeen; and The Trinity Centre, Aberdeen.
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