As Millie and I made our way through the side door into Hove Methodist Church, a fleet of volunteers in hot pink t-shirts waved us into the space. Sat in a circle with co-ordinator and founder Caroline at the helm, the volunteers paid rapt attention as she directed the proceedings of the day’s lunch club. Herby, savoury smells wafted from the kitchen, where lunch preparations were already underway; the dining room tables assembled and laid in the next room over. The army of volunteers divided into a kitchen team and a dining room team, where the guests began to trickle in through the double doors.
Food and Friendship is a lunch club whose roots stretch as far back as 2011, when Caroline Henderson took over the lunch club for older people running out of the YMCA, then under threat of being shut down. The warmth and heart it runs on is evident from the moment we make our way through to the dining room, and the first minibus of guests pulls up – anticipatory chattering reverberates through the cavernous venue, reminiscent of the first day back at school, all excitement and relief.
As we heard from one guest who has been a trustee for the past 11 years and a volunteer before that:
“I’ve been here all those years. It’s a great place to come to and it’s one day [a week] to look forward to. The transport picks us up, and we drive all the way through Hove streets – it’s great fun – then we arrive here, and off we go. It’s a day out! A lot of people are lonely, and it’s something to put in your diary for Tuesday. It’s great value.”
Operating two days a week, Food and Friendship caters towards older people at their Tuesday lunch club, and disabled guests on Thursdays, feeding about 140 vulnerable people each week. For many attendees, the afternoon they spend here is the only social interaction they get all week. The minibuses that run people to and from different corners of town are a vital part of the lunch club, making it possible for those with limited mobility and support systems to attend.
It really is a remarkable feat of organisation, I realised, as both Millie and I were delivered a plate of bread to our name-placed spots in the seating plan, each suiting our respective dietary requirements. The mechanisms by which Caroline receives the list of food on a Friday to be delivered the following week, designs the meal plans over the weekend, and informs the team of kitchen volunteers what to make, all operate at such a high level of efficiency and care. The conveyor belt of plate-filling activity at the dishing-up station collaborated to deliver plates of hot food all across the room, with the well-worn routine of a group of people who’ve done this many times before.
After the delicious and nourishing three-course meal, we sat down with the powerhouse Caroline as the tablecloths and tables were separated and folded around us, the magic of a liminal space dissolving back into a normal church hall. Tired and brightly beaming, she explained the club’s reliance on the food accessed through FareShare Sussex & Surrey, that
“Every week we receive way more, in terms of value, than we could have possibly bought in a supermarket. Today we had chicken, we had cauliflower, courgettes, potato, huge tins of apricots – all these things would have cost a lot more than the subscription to FareShare. So we totally rely on it.”
Caroline Henderson, co-ordinator of Food and Friendship
There was a look of earnest and moving pride in her face: the determination of a woman inventing joy and connection for people who need it.
“Without FareShare Sussex & Surrey, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do, there’s no way. Today we had homemade soup, a really nice chicken meal with sauce and vegetables, and a dessert, and we couldn’t afford to do that for what we charge if I had to go and buy it all. FareShare is so important to us.”
Caroline Henderson, co-ordinator of Food and Friendship
If you would like to find out more about Food and Friendship please visit their website here. To hear more from FareShare Sussex & Surrey, please sign up to our newsletter here.