Tales from the Team

  • 21 September 2021
  • Andrew Keene
My tale is about Community Lunches

We have a great mix of people coming from our two parish centres and from the community around us.

Some of our themes have been the traditional Easter, Mothers’ Day and Autumn. We also had a very interesting lunch where we looked at which countries we had come from and when. We decorated the hall with maps and flags and talked of our parents and grandparents. People from Germany, South Africa, England and Scotland told us what they missed from their memories of home and what they loved best about Australia.

We’ve also had some adventures, such as when twenty more people than we had catered for turned up one month, and another where we had no electricity to heat the food, wash the dishes or light the hall. It was probably one of our best lunches due to the very flexible and cheerful team of helpers who seem to cope with anything.

One lovely woman has turned up to every lunch. A member of our community, she has found the isolation of lockdown extremely difficult and the opportunity to sit and chat with people has been a wonderful relief for her. She enjoys conversation with everyone she sits next to.

I had this idea at the beginning of the lunches that we would play board games and enjoy craft together at these Community Lunches. But that has not really eventuated – it seems we all just want to meet face to face and really talk.