Pensioner lunches are under threat

By Rosie Stewart

PENSIONERS in Bemerton may have to look elsewhere for food and company as they are told their lunch club is under threat of closure.

The over-55s lunch club is run by the Thornhill Neighbourhood Project and has been providing a "sense of social inclusion” to pensioners across the Bemerton estate since 2003. Its future is in jeopardy, however, due to lack of funding, staff shortages and council bureaucracy.

Project Director, Lorraine Gibson, explained: “We [Thornhill Neighbourhood Project] managed to secure funding from the National Lottery back in 2000, but that’s due to run out in December next year."

She added: "The council is our main sponsor but they don’t see the club as a priority so we’re looking at different avenues. But it feels like we’re fighting a losing battle.”

For many pensioners, the lunches provide a welcome opportunity to get out and socialise with friends.

Gibson said: “For a lot of them it’s their outlet. It’s a chance for those who have felt excluded to come and get involved in the community.”

“We try to give them their 5-a-day because many of them have been living on their own for a while and can’t be bothered to cook,” she added.

Jackie Durnun, 71, has been attending the club for the past two years.

She said: “It gets you out of the house. At home you’re just stuck in doors. But here you get the chance to mix with other people. It would be really sad if it closed. We would just stay at home and I doubt we’d see each other much.”