Hot meal deliveries in High Wycombe for vulnerable families

Charities, Community, Food and Drink, Health and Social Care

The Clare Foundation in partnership with The Big Community Takeaway, One Can Trust, Buckinghamshire Council, High Wycombe Community Board and Wycombe Wanderers Sports and Educational Trust ran a pilot hot meal delivery service in High Wycombe on the evening of the 22 December to help the vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of the pilot was to bring a trusted hot meal delivery service to people’s doors using a team of volunteers. Developed by talented chefs and in conjunction with nutritionists, they offered a choice of healthy, familiar and tasty meals.

Some of the recipients of the hot meals had this to say:

“Thank you so much for the lovely meal tonight it was amazing.”

“What a lovely thing you’ve done. Taste amazing and now have a family with very full bellies. I just wanted to say to the lovely man who delivered thank you for making us start to feel Christmassy, this year our family has had a mega job loss and he helped me remember things are not so bad. Merry Christmas to you all!”

“Wow that dinner was amazing and really yummy. Me and my children loved it. Thank you to everyone.”

Chairman of the High Wycombe Community Board, Cllr Arif Hussain, said: “The hot meals pilot scheme went exceptionally well. When I delivered my first hot meals to family, I could not believe how eagerly they were waiting for some hot food, as soon I knocked the door and said hot meals, there was a huge cheer from children when their mum opened the door; they could not thank us enough.  It was a very heart-warming experience and puts things in perspective as what our residents are going through. It is a pleasure for HWCB to be part of this scheme.  I would like to thank Clare Foundation for choosing the HWCB area for the pilot scheme and also a huge thanks to The Big Community Take Away Team as well as the volunteers.”

Martin Gallagher, Chief Executive Officer at The Clare Foundation, said: “This is only a pilot and while we would love to support the whole of the High Wycombe community and Buckinghamshire, we needed to test our systems first to ensure success. Our long-term aim is to roll this out across the county in the New Year. You can register your interest at events@theclarefoundation.org and we will be in touch when we have news of the second phase of the project.”