Darvel group serving up food and friendship during lockdown

The Darvel Dinner ladies sprung into action before the pandemic took hold.

Deliveries of vital provisions during lockdown have been nourishing the soul – as well as stomachs.

One of the groups at the heart of this selfless operation is the Darvel Dinner Ladies.

Typically serving up Christmas dinners over the festive period the group has evolved to become a real force in the community – organising the annual scarecrow festival in Darvel too.

But the pandemic sparked the group into action in early March, delivering meals and essentials to the town’s most vulnerable.

Christine Campbell is co-ordinating the group in the area and says the hand of friendship is just as important as the food provision.

“People are really struggling out there just now but some people can actually be a bit embarrassed to say they need help.

“What we try and do is strike up a friendship, if we can.

“We phone them first to see if they’re accepting of the help and the girls have formed a lovely friendship with the residents.

“It’s all about trying to build on that sense of community.

“We always think it’s about more than the soup or a meal, it’s a wee gift of friendship and care.”

Christine says that demand in recent weeks has increased by a third with the hardy bunch of around five volunteers now delivering around 125 meals to people that are struggling in the area.

“We’re delivering to everybody, a real range of different people and families,” Christine added.

“We have people that are self isolating and families that are shielding, families that have lost their jobs – everyone you could imagine.

“It’s been really hard work but it’s been incredibly humbling.”

Even before lockdown was announced in March, the group of volunteers decided to spring into action after noticing that people were struggling in the area.

Christine said: “So when the coronavirus started we decided to do something about it.

“We work in partnership with the hub in Darvel and we deliver 125 meals a week to residents and we support them with food.

“People can contact us through our Facebook page – more for essentials like milk, bread, cheese.

“We support up to 16 residents a week with food and recently we hit around 130 meals in the Darvel
area.

“We started a few weeks before lockdown began because people were really beginning to struggle and quite a few people had started to take unwell.

“So we’ve been running since the start of March.

“We don’t have any funding so we’ve done well with donations, which has been great in keeping us going and we’ve managed to get by on them in the meantime.

“Even the local dentist in Newmilns donated PPE for us.

“The whole community has really rallied round and helped us.”