HIV charity celebrates fourth birthday

Last month, Lunch Positive celebrated its 4th birthday and National Volunteers Week. The lunch club for people with HIV achieves on-going growth and the number of people going along and joining the project each week keeps increasing.

Recently Lunch Positive served its 10,000th meal, everyone provided entirely by volunteers.

The project aims to provide a safe and welcoming community space where people can find friendship, peer support and share a healthy and affordable meal.

In the last year a team of 27 volunteers gave a total of 5,200 hours to the project.

Volunteer Project Manager, Gary Pargeter, said:

“It feels a fantastic achievement to have celebrated four years and now to be entering our fifth. We provide a unique service locally, one which despite improvements in HIV treatments shows that there remains a need for a space where people can meet – helping cope with the often complex social and psychological impact of being HIV positive. We’re also seeing more people in unexpected or enduring financial hardship – and it’s rewarding that we are able to help support people with a regular healthy meal in these circumstances. Everything positive which happens at the lunch club is a result of the support people provide one another, from the tremendous efforts of volunteers in delivering the service every week, to the welcome, encouragement and support members give one another when they come along.”

For more information, CLICK HERE: www.lunchpositive.org