Two friends are considering replacing Rochdale's axed Meals on Wheels service.
Diane Chadwick and Marilyn Jones, who run a luncheon club at Thrum Hall Methodist Church, were dismayed after the council cancelled the deliveries last month and are appealing for help in setting up a similar scheme.
Meals on Wheels, which saw hot meals delivered every weekday to vulnerable and elderly people, has now stopped running, with frozen meals now being taken to homes once or twice a fortnight.
"It was more than a meal delivery service," said Marilyn. "The volunteer drivers would stop and have a quick chat with the person and make sure everything was ok. That's what will be missing."
Diane, whose father, Jack Cuerden, suffered with dementia, said: "It was a reassurance to have them going in every day because you knew they would phone you if there was a problem.
"Some people out there won't be able to heat the meals. Are they going to have to get full-time carers or go into a home?
"Also, some people don't have any family or people to check on them and will be very isolated without this contact."
The friends, both 53, initially want to gauge opinion on how many people would be willing to help them with cooking and driving.
They would be able to give up one day a week to cook and need others to help them on other days and with deliveries.
Also needed are vehicles for transportation and a premises to cook the meals and any firms able to sponsor the service are invited to get in touch. Marilyn said: "We are hoping there are a lot of similar people out there who have been worried about the service ending and want to know if this idea could be possible. There are a lot of people who perhaps have one morning or lunchtime free every week who could help."
Anyone wanting to help should email dianeandmarilyn@gmail.com or write to them at Thrum Hall Methodist Church, Thrum Hall Lane, Rochdale OL12 6DE.
They run a luncheon club once a month at church and new members, over 65 are welcome to join but must book via the same methods.
It takes place on the second Saturday of each month, from September to April, at 12.30pm and costing £3.50.
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I wish you both well ,but fear that even if this system gets off the ground ( which will I think require a lot of council or charitable funding ,which may be better spent on other elderly services ),it will not survive long.
Users of meals on wheels had been declining year after year for lots of reasons. The price kept going up ,whilst the quality and choice kept going down,and delivery times were also an issue. These problems I feel would prove to be a terminal issue with any relaunch of this scheme.
Nobody wants to sit down to lunch at anytime between 11am and late in the afternoon. There are other alternatives available to most former users of meals on wheels,and I have to say that people know all of this . Hence the reason the service has been in decline DESPITE the fact that on average people are living longer,which logically should have meant MORE people would want the service not LESS....
Good job that everyone is not so defeatist, Anthony. Most great accomplishments arise from challenges met as opposed to shied away from.
In the words of someone more eloquent than myself:
"The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them."
Woodrow Wilson.