Elderly people across Dundee have received a hot meal and a bag full of goodies thanks to Golden Oldies Cinema Club, Scottish Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) and other organisations.
The cinema club, which runs monthly cinema sessions in the Ardler Complex and The Friary, has been closed since March but had been trying to organise a Christmas event for their members.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic and local restrictions in place, the event – a trip to a local restaurant followed by a movie session – was unable to go ahead.
Instead the group, along with SSEN, and donations from Weavers Mill and FareShare, put together a hot meal of either turkey, beef or nut roast with all the trimmings and a bag full of useful goodies and groceries for 76 people to help them during the festive period.
In fact over 100 bags of groceries were given out with some also going to the local community and Dundee Pensioners Forum.
Mary Cavin, who has been running the club for the past four years, said: “The response has been phenomenal. The meals from the Weavers Mill were hot, the SSEN teams delivering the meals were really nice and the amount of food delivered from FareShare has gone down really well.
“I’ve had so many calls thanking everyone for the deliveries, with one man telling me it was the best Christmas he’s had in years.
“I’m just so pleased it went really well. Thank you to everyone who supported us.”
Mary added she also wanted to thank Dundee City Council Festive Funding as well as the Lochee and Coldside Community Regeneration Forums for also helping them financially.
Samantha O’Connor, SSEN’s Customer Relationship Manager, said they were keen to help spread the Christmas spirit.
She said: “The Golden Oldies asked for help with face masks for their annual Christmas party at the Weaver’s Mill before the tier system came in, which we were delighted to help with.
“When it became apparent that they wouldn’t get their big party this year, we wanted to spread the Christmas spirit and organised a party pack so they can celebrate in their own homes.
“In addition to delivering hot Christmas meals and food from FareShare, our engineers provided home emergency kits which are full of useful items that enhance the personal resilience of our customers such as a torch, home emergency checklist, thermometer, magnet with our contact details, a pen and details of our Priority Services Register, which provides support to those who need it most.”
One of the recipients of the goodie bags and hot meal, was 91-year-old Betty Findlay who said there was a lot of handy things in her bag.
She said: “It’s all things that I can use.”
She added that getting a visit from the people delivering the bags cheered her up.
Frances Traynor, a member of the cinema club who also received a meal and helped to deliver some, added: “We had the turkey, it was lovely.”
