Big Local's 'Hot Square Meal Project' On Wednesday, 25th March, the Big Local sent members of the Partnership an email asking how they could invest some of their money as a way to help out the community in this difficult time. Within a few hours they had come up with a project idea to provide hot square meals to people in need, using a local café for the food and local volunteers to deliver it. 28 local people were helped directly with 740 meals cooked and delivered over 9 weeks. These were provided by 8 volunteers, who provided a combined amount of around 135 hours of time. By sourcing the food from Riverbank Café in Radstock, Big Local helped a local business stay open and provide employment to their members of staff (owner Shane Kitchen also generously provided free meals to others who didn’t quite qualify for the service). Many of the people helped were elderly, disabled or ill with very limited support from others. Because they were unable to get out of the house and supermarket delivery slots were extremely difficult to get hold of, they were struggling to make a healthy meal. The project helped them enormously in a time of extreme stress. One elderly person who had recently had a minor heart attack and was also in the process of recovering from a broken hip described the meals as “a real lifesaver” and gave the utmost thanks to the “incredibly friendly volunteers and to Riverbank café for such healthy food”. Another person helped was a single parent with mental health issues, whose extreme anxiety about Covid was preventing them from going out, and delivery slots were impossible to get. The meals helped them feel like they were still connected to the community and that people cared about them. The young child, who is a very fussy eater, absolutely loved the meals and it has encouraged them to eat a much wider variety of food! (Good work Riverbank Café for making such tasty meals). All the people who received the meals have expressed their gratitude for the service and in their own ways have stressed how important it has been for them not just for their physical health but also their mental health – feeling connected and cared for by the community. 28 - The Westfield Warbler
A massive thank you goes to the generosity of the volunteers who made this possible and helped create a community of care when it was most needed – John Bull, Sue Hill, Robin Moss, Emily Merko, Vince Cox, Carmen Goodwin, Sally Carmac-Bailey & Anthony Dutton. Thanks also goes to Shane Kitchen of Riverbank Café for agreeing to work with Big Local and providing quality, healthy meals for the community. Another big thank you goes to Janine Woodward-Grant from the Carers’ Centre, who spent a long time advising on the practicalities and carrying out the due diligence on the project proposal, making sure they would meet the requirements. The project has now ended because people are able to get to the shops or receive deliveries again, but if the situation happens again the Big Local are prepared! If you want to learn more about what Radstock & Westfield Big Local do and how you can join please check out the facebook page: www.facebook.com/ BLRadstockWestfield or website: www.radstockwestfield.org.uk
