A Salford charity has started a GoFundMe campaign to bring food, gifts and entertainment to elderly, isolated people this Christmas.
For the Love of Food started the campaign to support their ‘The Five Days of Christmas’ project, where the charity hopes to provide around 100 meals to each of their proposed Gateways around Salford.
The GoFundMe aims to raise £5,000 and plans to go towards the food, entertainment and bills required.
Walkden North Councillor, and founder of the Salford based charity For the Love of Food, Samantha Bellamy, is fundraising to bring food, gifts, and entertainment to elderly residents who may find themselves alone this Christmas.
Ms Bellamy said: “Everyone does a lot for families and they do a lot for children at Christmas. And I just thought that our older generation was getting a little bit left behind.
“So, with everything that’s going on at the moment with the cost-of-living crisis, I’ve seen some of our older residents struggling. I decided that I wanted to do a project called the Five Days of Christmas.”
Ms Bellamy expressed how since the pandemic, the older generation have been some of the most isolated. She said: “Some older people in Salford, they don’t have family. Some haven’t had children, they might have been a lone child. So they don’t have family, and this is to sort of try to get them back out again, back socializing and give them a bit more life.”
For the Love of Food originally started off as COVID response. At the height of the pandemic, they gave out around 1500 free meals a week, which made it one of the biggest operations in the UK.
It currently works solely with the help of volunteers. Ms Bellamy said: “We offer a low-cost paid ‘Meals on Wheels’ service, but we also do free to them that are struggling, through grant funding when we can get.”
They would also appreciate anyone who would like to volunteer, Ms Bellamy said: “We’re looking for people that can come and help in the kitchen, come and help on the day, come and volunteer their time, maybe serve the food. If they can sing, if they can dance, and they want to put some entertainment on for our older residents.
“It’s not just about providing a meal, it’s also providing a service, someone to talk to, someone checking up on you to make sure you are alright. And if there is an issue, raise an alarm.”
You can donate to the Five Days of Christmas here, or go to the For the Love of Food website for more details on the work that they do.
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