FORCES veterans, who’ve been helping a parish church within the East End of London to run its foodbank, now have a lunch club there specially for them.
The weekly event, labelled “Scran and scoff” (forces slang for a meal), is held at St Dunstan’s, Stepney. Twenty men got here to the primary Wednesday-lunchtime session last week. They are actually encouraging their friends to hitch them.
The hostel New Belvedere House, opened by the charity Veterans Aid in 1973, is situated within the parish, which has a protracted history of social engagement. The hostel, housing ex-personnel from all branches of the forces, is where most of those that attend live.
“Some time ago, numerous the veterans got here to assist out at our foodbank as volunteers, and it has moved on from there,” the Rector of Stepney, the Revd Trevor Critchlow, said. “We are signed as much as the Armed Forces Covenant here, which is ‘a promise from the nation that those that serve or have served within the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly’, and we take that seriously.”
The lunch-club project is being funded by the church, and the veterans were consulted beforehand on menu selections. The list featured familiar church buffet items — soup, bread, cheese, ham, pork pies, and scotch eggs — and was “heartily enjoyed by all who got here”.
A number also attend church each week and are regular guests on the parish’s Sunday Lunch Club — “a homecooked roast lunch for individuals who may not wish to cook for themselves” — which Fr Critchlow describes as a part of “St Dunstan’s community engagement”. The foodbank serves greater than 500 people each week, and there’s also a weekly drop-in coffee morning open to everyone.
“We see this as a part of our ministry of hospitality and welcome,” Fr Critchlow said. “Taking care of individuals’s basic needs is a gospel imperative, and it is a real two-way process. The veterans volunteer and help others within the parish via the foodbank, and with this initiative we’re capable of offer something specific for them, too.”
