Video: Freshly cooked meals on menu for 100 clients

WHATEVER the weather, the volunteers at St Hugh's Centre, Grimsby, dish up a hearty meal for scores of needy people. Reporter Peter Craig found out more.

VOLUNTEERS and organisers of the area's meals on wheels service have celebrated their success on a plate for hundreds of home diners.

They have enjoyed freshly cooked meals every week day for a year now, thanks to meals service manager Sandra Mason and her staff.

Even as temperatures topped 30 degrees centigrade the charity group carried on preparing hot meals for up to 100 clients per week.

And when there is ice and snow on the ground, the dedicated team of volunteer drivers will make sure there is a hot meal for everyone in need.

Clients receive a two-course meal for £5, or two of them for £9.

And the portions are so substantial that some even split them into two.

Sandra, who is also the manager of St Hugh's Centre, in Grimsby, where the team is based, said Fresh Start Meals is self-sustaining thanks to grants from The John Ross Community Trust Fund, Community First funding and money from North East Lincolnshire Council ward councillors, who have grant cash to give to worthwhile projects supporting the community.

West marsh councillors Darren Billard and Ian Lindley gave money for a new cooker at the centre.

Thanks to grants and the fees from clients, Fresh Start Meals have been able to employ cook Shirley Ellis.

She supervises a team, including Shelley Mitchell, Ann Salt and Lucy Marshall, and together, they secured a five-star rating in the council Scores On The Doors catering assessment this year.

The team prepares meals which are delivered by volunteer drivers.

The group currently has ten volunteers supporting the work in the kitchen and delivering meals.

Sandra said: "They are amazing. They keep coming back week after week. Without their support we could not provide the service.

"It is a worthwhile job, supporting people who do not have family around them. For some, the volunteers are the only people they see all day. We look after them as well. We do shopping for them, hang out washing and post letters and pick up prescriptions."

She added: "They are basic meals based on meat with two vegetables and we have a rolling menu which is four weeks in advance so clients can chose what they would like. We are flexible to suit their needs.

"We plate it out for them and probe it to ensure it is the right temperature and not below 63 degrees. We started a year ago because our lunch club was so successful. Some people said they wanted meals at home.

"The Care Trust provides frozen meals, and we thought about that, but decided they were not filling enough and it is better for people to have freshly cooked meals made with food which is sourced locally.

"I spent nine months researching how the WRVS did their meals on wheels in North Yorkshire and other places."

The group cares for people who have been referred to Fresh Start Meals by the local authority social services department.

A number have also been newly discharged from hospital.

Sandra said: "Some of them are just going to be temporary. They come to us as a short-term solution before they get back on their own feet and start cooking for themselves.

"Others are longer term, particularly those with dementia and those who have relatives who live away. Family will often pay the bills so they don't have to worry about mum or dad eating healthily."

The 100 clients per week served by the group live throughout North East Lincolnshire. Some have meals five days a week, and others three.

Sandra said: "I have a social work background. If I can make a difference to the lives of people in a small way, that means everything to me.

"People have said they could not manage without the help of Fresh Start Meals.

"For many, the contact with them is a lifeline. There was a couple who used to come to our lunch club. Sadly the husband died. The widow said she would not eat if we did not go out to her.

"You have to detach yourself. I tell the volunteers to help the clients in any way they can and if they are concerned about any matter of health or well-being to tell me immediately. I don't want volunteers out there stressing about people."

Volunteer driver Mike Pleasants said: "This is my way of giving something back."

Former Watmough's biscuit factory worker Freda Carroll, 93, said: "Having the meals is a big benefit. They come three times a week and on Wednesdays I go to St Augustine's Church lunch club and on Friday I walk to the St Hugh's Centre for my lunch.

"They are really lovely meals. Everyone should try them. I like all the meals and the desserts."

Cook Shirley Ellis said: "I was asked if I wanted the join the group in December. It is so rewarding. It is the pleasure of going out and delivering the meals."

She told how one day they found one client up a ladder in a pantry rearranging tins and may have prevented her suffering a nasty fall.

She added: "Some of them ask us to split the meals in two so they get another meal out of it. I get told not to put so much on the plates. But there is nothing worse than going somewhere for food and still feeling hungry."

Fellow cook Shelley Mitchell said: "We are told not to get emotionally attached, but you can't help yourself. We lost one of our favourites. It was heartbreaking, it is part of the job. When you are dealing with OAPs they deserve respect."

Joyce Nielsen, 80, of Cleethorpes, said: "I became associated with the group because I have been poorly. Carers come in every morning.

"I went off my food and lost a lot of weight. This is building me up again."

"The meals are making me strong because I get a cooked meal every day. They are a very nice group of people."

Sandra said she would be pleased to hear from other prospective volunteers.

Anyone wishing to volunteer or needing the meals on wheels service can contact Sandra on 01472 231507.