Joining generations through food
In September 2018, we started running Worth Wrinklies (they chose the name themselves!), a fortnightly lunch club for older people in Lowerhouses, Huddersfield. Food poverty is a fact of life for many local people, which is why we offer lunch clubs as well as cooking programmes to help people on a budget to eat well.
Over the summer, we ran Worth Wrinklies alongside our regular school holiday Kids’ Lunch Club. The four young people who had been attending the term time cooking club - and helping cater for the Kids’ Lunch Club - volunteered to support the regular ‘Wrinklies’ team and spend time with the older people. A really enjoyable shared afternoon was had by all. One of the young volunteers shared her reflections:
"My time at Wrinklies was a fun but scary experience. But I liked it in the end because we learnt new things about people that we haven't met before. For example, I learnt that Bamba was a community youth worker when he was in his 20s. June has dementia and so she thought she was at a party. Also, she forgot that she had already paid and wouldn't put her purse away until Wendy made a joke and made her laugh and she put it away. Elaine spoke about her school life and how cruel it was in the olden days and how it has changed over the years. Also, Libby (a volunteer) got called 'Lippy' by Arnold, because she was always telling people off or to do things. Arnold is 91 years old and was a teacher at school. It was really fun when we got to know them. We made them shepherd’s pie and toffee sponge cake and custard. It was good and I would like to do it again."
