News from Halesworth Volunteers
Community Car Service – A very warm welcome to our new volunteer drivers. Our Community Car Service offers transport for medical appointments, shopping trips and essential outings ensuring people remain independent; stay connected and able to meet their everyday needs. Our drivers support mostly older people, vulnerable adults and those with mobility challenges. Our dedicated volunteers go above and beyond to ensure people get to their destinations, on time, and home again safely. If you are interested in joining us, as a new volunteer driver, or if you need to use the service, we would love to hear from you. Please give us a call on (01986) 874290.If you have a booking or would like to enquire about the Community Car Service, please give us a call on – 01986 874290.
Isolation Busters – Our programme to provide social support to isolated older and vulnerable people. Isolation Busting is about bringing people together, whether it be younger and older people through befriending, or bringing group of older and vulnerable people together to enjoy activities, lunches, afternoon teas and trips, helping to build lasting friendships. Our next Community Lunch is Wednesday 25th March from 1.00 – 3.00pm. This will be back in St Mary’s Church and hopefully spring will be in full swing by then. Come and join us for a warm bowl of soup, sandwiches, cakes and a tea or coffee, everyone welcome and there is no need to book. Our team of volunteer shoppers continue to support people who struggle to manage shopping independently. A warm welcome to our new volunteers who have joined the shopping team.
Chinny’s Social – Coffee and Chat is a relaxed and welcoming opportunity to connect with like-minded people, make new friends and a chance to enjoy some delicious food on offer at Chinny’s. Our next date is Tuesday 7th April, in the Events Bar at Chinny’s from 12-2.00pm.
If you would like to discover more about Isolation Busters, our programme of events and dates, befriending or shopping support please give us a call on 01986 875600 or email info@halesworthvolunteers.org.
Halesworth Community Larder – There has been lots going on at the Larder recently. In February we had our first jacket potato lunch. We welcomed 12 people to the larder to enjoy jacket potatoes, cooked in our new oven, with a choice of chilli, baked beans, tuna mayo and cheese! We hope to have more of these lunches and will let you know dates.
Amanda Veal, author of our new recipe book ‘A Larder Full Of Recipes’, joined us last month to sign copies of the book. Amanda has pulled together recipes that are affordable, easy to replicate and family favourites to support visitors to the Larder. The cookbook has been a community project and includes guest recipes from local businesses and organisations. The cover was designed through a competition with Edgar Sewter School. All proceeds from the book will be generated back to the Community Larder and further support the local community. Grateful thanks to Suffolk Community Foundation for funding the project and to everyone who has contributed to the book. Special thanks to Amanda, for all the time, hard work and passion she has put into creating the book for us and making it all possible. There are limited copies of the book available at the Larder for visitors. There will soon be copies of the book available to buy in local businesses and in the HV office and is now available to buy on Amazon. Thank you to everyone who has already supported us and purchased the book. We hope you enjoy it and if you let us have your photos of anything you create in the kitchen from the book, we will share on our Facebook page.
On Saturday 14th March, at the larder from 10.00-11.30am, Amanda will be demonstrating a slow cooker recipe from the book – sausage and bean hotpot. Come along to the larder for a taste at 11.00am. We have slow cookers generously donated by the Rural Coffee Caravan for those who are in need of one. We have 10 places for people who will receive a slow cooker, book and a Morsbag, kindly donated by Halesworth Morsbags, with the ingredients to take and try at home. We are delighted that Annette from the Rural Coffee Caravan will be joining us too.
Covid-19 Day of Reflection – Sunday 8th March was a UK-wide Covid-19 Day of Reflection, in commemoration and recognition of the loss that was endured during the pandemic. Communities across the country joined together to remember the challenging times and difficulties that so many experienced. In Halesworth, we remembered loved ones we lost too soon, and the incredible way in which everyone joined together to support and protect our older and vulnerable members of the community. Our Town Council has sponsored a tree, which was planted at the Halesworth Volunteers Office at the Patrick Stead Day Care Centre. The tree is an olive tree, a sign of peace and a sapling at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. Reverend Dominic Doble said a few words and reflected on the effect that Covid-19 had on our community and then blessed the tree.
Fundraising – Our next fundraising event is our wonderful Kingsley Elliff, who will be running the Reverse London Marathon for us! Kingsley won’t be running backwards, but he will be running the route from reverse, from The Mall to Greenwich starting in the early hours of the London Marathon day on Sunday 26th April 2026. If you would like to sponsor Kinglsey, please pop into the HV office, or talk to Kingsley. We will update you as soon as we have the Just Giving page up and running.
100 Club – After some initial delays, we are very excited to be launching our 100 Club, a fun way for us to raise vital funds to continue our work in Halesworth and the surrounding rural communities.
For just £60 per year, you can be part of our monthly draw and could win as much as £100! But more importantly, money we raise through our 100 Club will go to supporting our vital services.
Just call us on 01986 875600 if you want to join up and we will let you have more information and a copy of 100 Club rules. We are planning on having our first draw in April 2026, so do let us know as soon as possible if you’d like to be part of it.
Quiz – Our next fundraising quiz night will be Wednesday 18th March. Join us for an 8pm start in The Stables, at the Angel. It is £2 per person, with teams of 4 ideally. There is a small prize for our winning team and nibbles served in the interval.