Members of a senior citizens’ group in Castle Douglas are to get weekly slap-up meals delivered for free.
Around 20 regulars at the Golden Day Club will benefit from the service from next week.
Normally the OAPs would enjoy a social meal and a chat in the community centre on Cotton Street.
But they have been unable to meet up for nearly a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now they will be reunited with club volunteers delivering meals to the door.
Golden Day Club manager Martin Fortnum said: “A lot of these folk are vulnerable and isolated on their own.
“We will deliver them round the town and take two or three to outlying districts in the Glenkens as well.
“One delivery is even going to Lockerbie to a member who had to move there from Castle Douglas.
“I did not want to leave him out because he had been coming across here on a weekly basis.”
The initiative is being run with local deli Wrap ‘n’ Roll which will pre-cook the meals in-house.
The scheme is being funded through the council’s Covid-19 support fund and will run until Easter.
A rota of three volunteers will make the doorstep deliveries.
Mr Fortnum said: “I have spoken to the members and they are all delighted.
“They are looking forward to a visit from somebody different at their door as well.
“It means we can chat away to them and see how they are getting on.
“They are not getting any social contact as they did at the club. So they will enjoy their weekly blether.”
Mr Fortnum added: “The folk are aged between 70 and 93 with the majority in their late seventies and early eighties.
“This will do just as much good for us meeting them as it will for them meeting us.”
Wrap ‘n’ Roll owner Lisa Denny only began serving ready meals this week in a bid to stay open.
Lisa, 46, said on Tuesday: “The sandwich side had fallen away. So I thought do you try to make a pound or do you just close?
“We did about 40 meals yesterday.”
The Golden Day Club service is due to start next Thursday.
