Watch as Ludlow charity announces Christmas lunch for the lonely
A busy Ludlow charity is getting a helping hand to provide a Christmas lunch to those in need and the lonely thanks to the generosity of a new business to the town.
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Hands Together Ludlow’s annual Christmas Day lunch at its Lower Galdeford headquarters in the town will provide up to 40 meals for those who might otherwise spend Christmas on their own.
On the menu will be traditional roast turkey and Christmas pud with vegetarian and vegan options and with some seasonal treats paid for by a £100 donation from Lock Stock Self-Storage who recently opened a new storage park at Highlands Farm, near Brimfield.
It’s a welcome Christmas bonus for Hands Together Ludlow, founded in 2012, which has seen demand for its services explode , particularly since the pandemic.
Operations Manager Susie O’Hagan heads a team of six staff and over 100 volunteers who provide a range of services including the Food Hub and Community Fridge, a Men’s Shed, the Good Grief Café, Walks for All, Social Space including mindful colouring, lucky dip lunch and board games, and even emergency dog walking and computer skills.
She said: “We’re very grateful to Lock Stock because we serve Christmas Day lunch here for up to 40 people who might otherwise be on their own and we deliver to those who can’t get out so it can be as many as 50 Christmas dinners that we provide.
“Hands Together was started 12 years ago after a Ludlow Under Pressure report discovered gaps in provision across the town. We became a registered charity in 2017 and have continued to grow, especially since Covid and taking on our building in Lower Galdeford.
“Visitors might think Ludlow is a prosperous market town but two of the seven wards have been in the country’s most disadvantaged categories.
“Shropshire Council estimate that every volunteer hour is worth £16.07 in social value and by that measure by the end of the year our volunteers will have put over £176,770 back into the town. We couldn’t do what we do without them.
“Over a ton of food comes in every month and we have an amazing team here but we also rely on businesses like Lock Stock who are helping us with the Christmas dinners, and Ludlow Farm Shop who give us the turkey and Christmas puds.”
Lock Stock Self-Storage this year opened new storage parks at Brimfield and in Craven Arms to their existing Shropshire sites in Shrewsbury and Oswestry and Area Manager Richard Warner said: “We do like to get involved with the communities where we operate and it’s our way of saying thank you for their support.
“We have just opened new sites locally and this is clearly a much-needed service and hopefully Lock Stock will have played a part in bringing some Christmas cheer to local households.
“The team of volunteers here clearly do a fantastic job at what is a very difficult time for so many people and we like to support the community in the places where we are in business whether that’s charities like Hands Together or local schools and community groups.”
Lock Stock, founded in Denbigh in 1999, is the UK’s largest containerised storage company with almost 4,500 units providing over four million cubic feet of space at 29 storage parks across Shropshire, North and Mid Wales and Merseyside.
The company estimates that 60 per cent of their containers are rented by people moving house or keeping treasured possessions but up to 40 per cent, almost 2,000 of their containers are used by small businesses for storing materials.
Lock Stock also specialise in the off-site hire of containers, delivered to your location by their specialist lorry and hired on a month-by-month basis. The containers are 10, 20 and 40 feet in length.ove.
For more information about the work of Hands Together Ludlow visit the website.
