Free Friday gourmet Lunch Club for Chichester's elderly, lonely and vulnerable

The Friday Lunch Club will see The Sussex Pub Group, which runs popular restaurants across the district including Purchases and the Pallant House Gallery cafe, delivering a free hot two-course lunch every Friday to residents in the city.

The Sussex Pub Group has teamed up with Chichester Cathedral and Pallant House Gallery to offer older, lonely or vulnerable residents the chance to be part of a community of diners, joining a city-wide initiative from the comfort and safety of their homes.

In return, Friday Lunch Club asks for a voluntary donation to be made to the project’s partners: Chichester Cathedral and/or Pallant House Gallery.

Nick Sutherland, director of the Sussex Pub Group, said he expected the initiative to start with maybe 40 meals.

But the plan is to scale it up to maybe a hundred as the idea takes off. Nick said he expected the initiative to last as long as lockdown.

“This latest lockdown is so tough on us all but particularly for older people, many of whom live on their own.

“The teams at Pallant Café and Purchases all wanted to help by doing something for lonely local people to look forward to even if it’s once a week.

“I go to the Cathedral and I notice that there are quite a lot of people that were on their own that I am not seeing any more.

“So I came up with this idea to keep my boys and girls (in the restaurants) going – and to help people still engage with restaurant-quality food.

“I am not talking about a soup kitchen; I am talking about a gourmet meal.

“We can’t charge because we would then have to take the staff off furlough and there would be all the other associated costs, and that wouldn’t be in the spirit of it anyway.

“I just decided that we would do this as a voluntary thing and as a way to reach out to the lonely and elderly and vulnerable in Chichester. I approached the Cathedral to see if they would be interested in working with us.

“And I also spoke to Pallant House Gallery because they have got a lot of Friends, perhaps elderly and vulnerable, who would usually be visiting the gallery.

“We are going to start with about 40 meals and are going to be scaling it up as the demand grows.

“We are supporting all the costs of all the ingredients and the packaging ourselves, and I have been amazed by the enthusiasm and the take-up of the staff to give their time for free.

“Maybe they are partly doing it out of boredom but also because they realise it is such a good thing to do.

“This isn’t about giving people baked beans.

“This is a proper restaurant meal delivered to their door. It’s about knocking on their door and saying hello and giving them a fantastic two-course meal.”

Nick anticipates the cost per meal to the company will be around £5; the deliveries will be to within around ten minutes’ drive of Pallant House Café where the meals are being prepared.

It’s a cost Nick is happy to bear, though if lockdown lengthens, he could well be looking for sponsorship towards the scheme.

The two-course meal, main dish and dessert, will be delivered in sealed containers in a brown recyclable bag delivered to your door by staff who will wear a mask.

Hands will be sanitised before after each delivery.

For full details of criteria and the way The Friday Lunch Club will operate, visit chichestercathedral.org.uk/friday-lunch-club or you can email [email protected] to find out more.

You can also phone 0771 8765856 (call only on Wednesdays between 9am-11am).

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