Aim

To continue our adapted Meals on Wheels service across East Durham during this crisis and beyond for our elderly/vulnerable residents.

Wheatley Hill Community Association is a small registered charity operating the community centre (Greenhills Centre) in the village of Wheatley Hill, East Durham.

The village experiences high multiple deprivation.

We've offered a Meals on Wheels service since 2010, run by a small team of paid staff and volunteers worth their weight in gold.

Our two cooks are supported by 5 volunteers who give hours of their time to serve our local elderly with hot meals in their own homes.

Many of our clients have little or no  family and benefit greatly from the hot meal delivered daily and the few minutes of friendly social contact.

At the start of this crisis our team all made personal decisions to continue to serve our community - 2 of our volunteers should have been isolating due to age and health issues however everyone has ploughed on and pulled together.

We've seen our delivery area expand and  weekly meal numbers more than triple.

We deliver across East Durham to - Wheatley Hill, Thornley, Shotton, Haswell, Peterlee, Horden, Grantshouses, Easington, Wingate, Station Town, The Trimdons & Fishburn.

Typical meal numbers are between 180 & 190 hot meals  & c.70 desserts per week.

We have sought funding to be able to subsidise the cost of the hot meal during the crisis.

Our prices are modest £3 per main; £1.25 dessert & 50p delviery charge outside of our village.

Menus change daily & weekly and offer freshly prepared hot"home cooked" traditional meals and desserts Monday to Friday. We also offer freshly prepared chilled meals on Fridays to be stored in a clients fridge and heated thoroughly for Saturday & Sunday.

Some of our clients have been with us years, however in the period March to May 2020 we welcomed a further 36 new clients due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Funds raised will support the service going forward when much of our income has been stripped away due to the lockdown.

By supporting the wages of our 2 cooks, cost of utilities used for cooking, delivery and offering subsidy to our clients so we ensure the benefit is passed directly to them will ensure WHCA can maintain this vital service now and in the future.

Thank you for your consideration and support.

This project successfully funded on 25th February 2021