Age UK North Yorkshire and Darlington

Age UK North Yorkshire and Darlington has been inundated with new requests for its popular Meals at Home service as well as its free onsite café meals, which have increased by 300%, over recent weeks.

Now, the charity is advising those with new requests to start meal orders that there will be a short delay while dealing with the backlog. The charity is hoping to be back on track by early April and is also urgently seeking volunteer drivers to cope with the demand.

In the meantime, the team is working flat out to cover existing deliveries, and free subsidised meals at the charity’s Café Refresh, which are in part made possible with Household Support funding from Darlington Borough Council.

The charity’s ‘Meals at Home’ service was set up in 2020 to provide older people in Darlington and surrounding villages with a catered meal from kitchen to home. The service, which has the capacity to dish out up to 100 meals a day, provides a varied set menu of good, old-fashioned, and wholesome food.

The two-course menu options include pork chops, mash and veg and mince and dumplings and sticky toffee pudding and chocolate sponge and custard as well as Sunday lunches with all the trimmings. Meals at Home is offered seven days a week between 12.30pm and 2.00pm for only £7.50 a day and is prepared by a dedicated team of three full time cooks backed up by volunteer kitchen assistants.

Helen Hunter, Chief Executive of Age UK Darlington and North Yorkshire, said: “Our Meals at Home service has become extremely popular due to the quality and affordability of food on offer. We are currently working flat out to meet current orders and to process new requests as quickly as we possibly can.

“Our Meals at Home service provides an invaluable facility to many people in the community. I’d like to apologise for the delay and would advise that no one has been forgotten but that it is taking a little longer than we anticipated to fulfil new orders. We will get new requests for meals out as soon as possible, and we hope no one should be waiting beyond early April to start new orders.”

A six-strong team of dedicated volunteers deliver the meals daily to many of our most in need older people. The service provides a lifeline to not only those older people living alone but also directly to more social settings such as day care centres. The volunteers provide a vital social connection to often lonely or isolated people too.

Age UK North Yorkshire and Darlington is currently looking for volunteer drivers to help deliver the meals. If you can spare a few hours, even if just occasionally, please call 0300 30 20 100 to find out more.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Marie Carter-Robb at marie@mccommunications.co.uk or call 07760 477694.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Age UK North Yorkshire and Darlington is a nationally registered charity and one of 150 locally based Age UK organisations providing a variety of services to older people aged 50 plus.

Whether it’s through recreational activities, expert information and advice, befriending services or just being somewhere to turn when things get too tough to cope with on your own, Age UK North Yorkshire and Darlington provides crucial companionship, advice and support to thousands of people every year.

Community focused, Age UK is dedicated to enhancing the lives of older people in the community through befriending, outreach and social activities as well as providing an invaluable range of social and wellbeing services, including:

• A cafe and restaurant.
• A day centre
• Exercise & physical activity
• Meals at home
• IT Training courses
• Social activities