The lockdown brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic has forced plenty of people to make enormous changes to their lives. Here in our own community it has also presented some wonderful opportunities.
One of those is the expansion of the Friendly Food Club. Dorset-based, it is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to get as many people as possible to care about what they eat and enjoy the process of cooking and eating together. The workshops are free are a chance for people to make new friends within their community as well as learning some basic cooking skills whilst preparing, cooking and eating a meal together.
But we’re currently in the middle of a pandemic lockdown so the workshops can’t take place as normal. Undeterred, the organisation has modified its model to continue to provide some of the benefits of the club by providing the ingredients for a different meal every week, which are bagged up and instead distributed to the homes of local families.
It has now opened an operation in Swanage, supported by the Swanage and Purbeck Development Trust and Swanage & Purbeck Rotary and co-ordinated by Kim Gallagher. The service started this week, and members of Swanage Rotary have just created the first 44 bags of ingredients, at all times observing strict social distancing rules of course, which will be distributed to people’s homes by staff and pupils at Swanage School, St Mark’s and Swanage First School.
It is intended that this will continue at least until lockdown rules are relaxed but it may well continue beyond that.
More details about the Friendly Food Club can be found on their Facebook page.