Tesco £10K charity cheque benefits elderly at Wick lunch club
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Following on from Saturday's charity event at Wick Tesco, the supermarket delivered its promised £10,000 cheque to the local beneficiary – Pulteneytown People's Project (PPP) Lunch Club for the Elderly.
The lunch club held its usual Wednesday afternoon event in the Pulteney Centre and at around 2pm all came to a hush as Tesco's community champion, Karen Center, handed over the big cheque.
"We're delighted that it came to a local group within the town of Wick," said Karen. "Ten thousand pounds is a lot of money for them. I came today, had a beautiful meal and met some of the people here.
"It's nice to see them get together and socialise which they probably didn't get over the last couple of years due to Covid."
Jennifer Harvey, development officer at PPP, accepted the cheque for the lunch club which she initiated in the Pulteney Centre a few years ago. "First of all, I want to say a big thank you to Karen," she said.
"I'm pretty sure this money wouldn't have come into the county without her work as the community champion. She does an awful lot of hard work for the community. The money will be put to very good use and all the people here today are delighted to be getting this extra injection boost of money. It will make a big difference to them and allow more people to come in and do so much more at a time when people are needing it the most."
Jennifer said that since Covid there are many elderly and disabled people who have found themselves "socially isolated" and became low and depressed as a result. "They've not been getting out much at all and been frightened to go out, so we try and build their confidence to come out to mainstream things again. This money will go towards overheads and travel costs as well as energy and food. It will sustain and keep the group afloat. Knowing we've got this in the pot will take the pressure off everybody."
Lunch club member Doreen Bannerman from Wick handed over a bouquet of flowers to Tesco's community champion, Karen Center. "It's a thank you to Tesco. The money will be put to good use for the transport and the meals," said Doreen. Describing how good the PPP service for the elderly is, she added: "People pay £5, get collected from their house and then you're taken back home. They take care of you all the time."
One of the lunch club's oldest members Kathleen Sinclair said she comes every week for a meal at the Pulteney Centre. "It's really lovely and you get a beautiful meal," said the ninety-one-year old.
"We're well looked after here. It's a very good social event. There's nothing much else in the town for people our age. It's lovely to get out and we're collected by car and put back. It really makes your day to be here."
Shoppers at Wick's Tesco store took part in a special lucky dip for a golden token to benefit a local charity with £10,000 on Saturday afternoon. The event took place at the entrance to the supermarket with numerous people invited to try and find a specially created gold version of Tesco's blue voting token amongst others in a bag. Pulteneytown People's Project
Lunch Club for the Elderly, East End Football Club and Trinkie Heritage Preservation Group were the local good causes vying for the £10,000 up for grabs after the supermarket chain had nominated the Wick store to take part in its Golden Grant competition.
Jane McCarthy from Bower picked out the golden token from the bag and deposited it in the lunch club slot. "I was just doing my shopping and heading home," said Jane who was also given a Tesco voucher as a thank you for taking part. "They just asked me to put my hand in the bag and if I got the gold token I could pick which one I wanted to put it in. Ten thousand for PPP is good."
Tesco has donated £100 million in community grants to more than 50,000 good causes since the initiative was launched in 2016. Good causes that have benefited include breakfast clubs, food banks, meals on wheels, playgrounds, parks, counselling and support services for young people and children’s sports teams.
