Although the usual sit-down Christmas day lunch didn’t go ahead this year Kingsbridge Age Concern delivered a three course meal to 45 households.

They had 11 drivers and 3 kitchen staff volunteering on the day (including Graham who did all the cooking).

Centre Manager Suzi Garrod said: “I was working all day as well, making sure all the orders were correct, allocating the delivery routes and coordinating the volunteers. All in all, 15 people gave up some, or all of their Christmas Day, in order to help us prepare and deliver lunch to the elderly. It was an amazing community response. In many ways it was like a military operation, to make sure everyone got the meal combinations they wanted at the correct time - but the whole team also had a lot of fun on the day“

Deliveries were made all around Kingsbridge but also West Alvington, Salcombe, Malborough, South Milton, Bantham, Frogmore, Chillington and Stokenham. As well as a choice of meal, each person was also given a little Christmas goodie bag containing a homemade Christmas cake, a small bottle of wine (or a non-alcoholic mulled wine), some chocolate and a surprise gift. The chocolate and the gifts were all donated by people in the community who wanted to give something to the elderly at Christmas. They wanted to remain anonymous but asked them to pass on the gifts as part of their meal delivery so that they had something special to open on the day. One lady had crocheted five throws by hand to help keep people warm over winter.

Suzi added: “It’s so heart warming to know that there are so many people in our community who want to reach out to help the elderly. And its lovely that we at Age Concern are increasingly being seen as a central hub for elderly support and that people now realise we can pass on those gifts to those most in need.”

Shortly before Christmas, the Kingsbridge Estuary Rotary Club and Dodbrooke Feoffees donated 15 Christmas hamper gift bags filled with food supplies for Age Concern to deliver to their most vulnerable clients, and the local Co-op garage on Ilbert Road regularly brings them gifts such as flowers, cookies or fruit to deliver as well. Some of the Christmas goodie bags also included little hand-made Christmas cards painted by year -one children at Stokenham Primary School (aged 5 and 6). They have been actively expanding their intrgenerational activities over the last 12 months, hoping to bring young and old together, and have opened up more volunteering opportunities for young people.

The Christmas menu options were smoked salmon and pesto tartlet or Butternut squash and stilton soup to start, a choice of roast turkey, roast beef or nut roast with all the trimmings as a main meal and Christmas pudding or sherry trifle for dessert.

Some feedback we were given on the day was that the deliveries were very well organised and efficient, the meals were delicious, and the gifts were very much appreciated. As they had so many drivers, Suzi was able to keep the delivery schedules short for each of them. This meant they could spend some time chatting with their clients. Some of the volunteers pulled Christmas crackers with them and shared the jokes that were inside. Some helped the clients open up their presents and others helped to serve up the meal if they were very frail or had mobility issues.

Suzi concluded: “Our volunteers were able to check in with our clients, make sure they were ok and hopefully bring a bit of community Christmas cheer to what might otherwise have been a pretty lonely day.”