Luncheon Club

Luncheon Club

NEPHRA’s Luncheon Club meets every Tuesday at the Parkfield Dance Centre between 11.30 and 1.30……..all are welcome…the only criteria for diners is that they are over 50 and live in the surrounding area.

Every Tuesday between forty and fifty diners sit down to enjoy a healthy home cooked three course lunch……residents in the NEPHRA area who have no transport or have difficulty walking can have transport arranged for them by NEPHRA volunteers..

It is a great chance for residents (some of whom have limited opportunity to get out much) to not only enjoy the celebrated home cooking but also to socialise with others of a similar age group. The emphasis is upon providing good food, NEPHRA is trying to create an upbeat atmosphere within club, one that steers away form blue rinses and bingo.

It’s hard to believe, but this generation of older people are the children of the fifties and sixties, and hopefully with the formation of an older person’s committee, they will help shape a more modern approach to local service delivery, for our older residents.

So, how did this project ever come to be conceived?...... In 2006, NEPHRA as part of the health week’s promotions organised hosted a Soup & Saucy Salsa event. It was so well received by older residents that they asked NEPHRA to organise a Luncheon Club. The committee thought about this and decided to apply for two grants….one to Food Futures to fund the creation of the organic allotment. The second grant application was to the POPP’s Team, to purchase much needed equipment to run the luncheon club.

With the success of both bids, NEPHRA was in a state of shock! We had no premises for the Luncheon Club and we had no idea as to where we could build our allotment. However, after a swift cuppa, work soon began to develop both projects. The Allotment Project was geared to providing both light exercise for some of our older residents and healthy organic produce for the Luncheon Club. The Luncheon Club was geared to providing good food as well as a place to meet. Thankfully, help came from an unsuspecting source – The Northfield Day Centre, [who out of the blue and on the very day the grant offer letter landed on the mat], offered NEPHRA use of their grounds for a community garden or an allotment!

I have an aunt who swears in times of difficulty; angels are sent along to help out! Fortunately, we found ourselves surrounded by angels at the Day Centre, so much so that our project began to take shape – well for the time being - on paper at least! During this developmental phase NEPHRA received lots of help and support from the ZEST Project as well as the Irk Valley Project, without which we would not be the success we are today!

Talks also took place with the Parkfield Dance Centre, and thankfully they too with their community spirit agreed to the Luncheon Club meeting at its premises each week! We soon realised, in order to ensure the allotment plans were sustainable (once the funding was finished), more money was needed, so a further grant [CAS:H], was applied for - Manchester City Council.

Whilst the plans for the allotment were still at the planning stage, Tuesday 5th December 2006 dawned and saw the Luncheon Club open its doors for the first time……………..word had spread throughout the neighbourhood and within half an hour of opening the venue was full.

Now almost a year on, the Luncheon Club is a resounding success…..every week between forty and fifty customers are served tasty healthy food, occasionally entertained, often informed, and the compliments and endorsements received from both customers and outside agencies are heaping up.

NEPHRA received additional funding for the allotment in March 07 and work began in earnest to transform the grounds of the Northfield Day Centre into various allotment plots. Raised beds were built, potting sheds and greenhouses erected and paths were laid. By May the 27th our official launch day, we had planted a mini orchard and over 40 different vegetables!

Now Luncheon club customers are offered a three course healthy lunch (and now wherever possible, ingredients are sourced form the allotment) of homemade soup followed by a choice of three home cooked main courses (one of which is always vegetarian), and a choice of two desserts, and a variety of beverages. This combination of home produced produce and healthy home cooking has gone down a treat with the regulars, and both projects now have firm foundations in the bedrock of the community.

A natural follow-on from the Luncheon Club was to organise coach trips out for customers………..these are always fully subscribed and enable our older members to have supported days out they would otherwise be unable to enjoy.

This has gone a long way towards achieving the twin targets of the Luncheon Club, which are not only to provide the members with healthy eating but also to improve life’s experiences.

Guest speakers also regularly attend the Luncheon Club to advise residents on matters like home security, arrange for the free fitting of smoke alarms or even to give benefits advice, and local councillors make themselves available to address residents’ needs and concerns.

With both these projects going from strength to strength, NEPHRA is as always, reliant on volunteers who would be willing to spend time helping with the allotment (times to suit), or who could spare between two to four hours helping out at the Luncheon Club on a Tuesday. It takes eight or nine volunteers a week to run the Luncheon Club, so NEPHRA as well as welcoming new diners to the club, are always on the lookout for fresh volunteers who have a couple of hours to help out in a worthwhile cause. Remember, age is no barrier, as most of our volunteers are pensioners themselves!

Also importantly, there are residents out there who would benefit from joining the Luncheon Club, but who are either unaware of it or need to know more about it, they might need help getting down there……so if you yourself, fall into one of those categories, or you know someone else who does, get in touch as we’ll be more than pleased to help!

LUNCHEON CLUB REOPENS FOR AUTUMN 2ND SEPTEMBER 08