Lunch bunch club brings Christmas cheer to some of Kendal’s most lonely residents

Bay Health and Care Partners media release

An award-winning lunch club has held a Christmas meal for 25 older residents from Kendal. The event was held at Kendal Parish Centre to allow for distancing and COVID guidance to take place.

Home Instead donated gifts that were delivered by Kendal Fire Station to the lunch bunchers, there was a visit from Santa and a some of the best Christmas Carols were sung. Following the meal there was a visit to the Christmas Tree Festival at Kendal Parish Church to see the decorations they had made each week.

Kendal Lunch Bunch is run by a group of volunteers and supported by Helen Pateman, Kate Tordoff and Gillian Cowburn from the People’s Café, Trudy Brayshaw and Alison Nicholson from Kendal ICC and Natalie Chapple, a local carer.

Cara Stride, Development Lead for Kendal ICC, said: “It was lovely to see so many of residents getting into the Christmas spirit. The festive period can be a very lonely and isolating time for many people so it is really important that we offer opportunities like this within our communities. We’ve had some really touching feedback from those who attended.”

Kendal Lunch Bunch has been running since 2018 and uses donated food from local businesses to reduce wastage. The nursing team at Kendal ICC recognised it would be a great idea to bring together the local residents in an effort to combat loneliness and so the Lunch Bunch was launched. However, when groups were restricted because of Covid the volunteers delivered monthly free home meals to housebound and older members of the community.

As well as switching to a meal delivery service during the pandemic, volunteers checked in regularly with residents to make sure they were okay and even had themed visits including on Victory in Europe (VE) Day to raise their spirits. Kendal ICC also worked with the emergency planning group who donated items such as posies and bulbs for the residents. Volunteers also delivered birthday cakes to residents. Face-to-face sessions were restarted in September 2021 with a small group of residents to ensure social distancing.

The initiative was awarded the High Sheriff of Cumbria's special recognition award in 2020 for its efforts.