Towards the end of 2019, Melksham Community Meals said goodbye to The Assembly Hall and moved into Spencers. Sue Mortimer of Melksham Community Meals says, “We were very pleased with the number of people who still manage to attend the meals, despite it being moved out of town.
“Christmas (2019) was very successful for both the users and other senior functions that we catered for during that period. Attendance kept growing on Sundays despite there being bad weather and added problems of the one-way system on the Town bridge.
“We put on a free Valentine’s meal in February which was fully booked. People made donations that more than covered the cost, so we were able to donate to Melksham Food Bank. Mothering Sunday was fully booked, but unfortunately we had to cancel it due to Covid19 rules.
“Since then, we have been unable to open, but have kept in contact with our users by surprise monthly deliveries of Easter cards, plants, goodie bags for VE day, Seaside picnic cream teas, Harvest festival and advent calendars.
“At the end of September we received the news from Spencers that we would not be able to return after Covid-19 and more recently we had to urgently remove all our food and equipment. Any food that we had was donated to Melksham Food Bank and our equipment was kindly moved and put into storage by Melksham Town Council who did a brilliant job for us.
“Lidl has currently chosen to support us with food donations but it is the social side of things that our users are missing, so we have decided that any food donation we receive this Christmas from Lidl will be passed on to Melksham Food Bank.
“We are looking forward to slamming the door shut on 2020 and getting back to some sort of normality in the spring of 2021. Ideally we would like premises two or three days a week where we could be open between 10.00am to 3pm to do teas, coffees and activities, as well as lunch. Bigger premises would be needed for Sundays.
“If any businesses/organisations have empty facilities in the day or Sunday twice a month that we could put to good use, please get in touch. Our users would also like to have a chance to meet the children from The River Mead School who have done pictures, cards, letters etc that we have included in our surprise drop offs – so we look forward to being able to do that.
“It has been very heartwarming to see the friendships made at our meals and how people have been able to support one another during lockdown. 2021 brings hope of a vaccine, so we look forward to meeting up with old and new users as soon as we have some new premises and we are the other side of this pandemic.”
You can contact Sue Mortimer, Melksham Community Meals on 07719 935 883.
