DAILY NEWS

14 Ards churches club together to help vulnerable during Covid-19 pandemic

Photo above – Barbara Haughan of the Movilla Abbey Church catering team helps put together dinners for the vulnerable as part of the Ards Churches Response.

Over a dozen churches across Ards have joined together to support vulnerable members of their community during the Coronavirus pandemic, Philip Bradfield reports in the News Letter.

Many food banks, sports teams, community groups and businesses across Northern Ireland are working hard to ensure that the frail are kept fed and safe.

One example is the Ards Churches Response, which has sprung up to mobilise volunteers, led by coordinator Diane Holt.

Fourteen churches in the town have printed and distributed 10,000 leaflets to homes with contact numbers for anyone who needs shopping or prescription deliveries, a friendly phone call or prayer with a pastor.

One volunteer group across the member churches is the catering team at Movilla Abbey Church on Movilla Road, led by Barbara Haughan.

As the lockdown began to bite, her church was forced to close the doors on its regular senior citizens lunch club, which feeds almost 80 pensioners every week.

“Just before the lockdown, we didn’t have phone numbers for any of them so we just decided we would let them come to the door and we made up their dinners in boxes gave them their meal out the door to heat them in the microwave,” she said.

“But this gave us an opportunity to get their names and phone numbers so we could contact them again and check up on them and take meals out to them later.”

The team was gifted a new freezer and 500 microwaveable plastic food containers and immediately got to work, cooking fresh meals and putting them into their new freezer.

“We wanted to build up our stock and give them out in the community as they are needed. We are working in conjunction with all the other churches who may be able to tell us where the meals need to go. We don’t necessarily have a list of everyone who might be in need.

“Some of the dedicated catering team have had to bow out as they are considered in the vulnerable category.

“But the rest of the team are soldiering on, also having been gifted a range of food from local businesses such as Corrie’s Meat, Top Mark and McDonald’s, which have supplied some of our ingredients. People in the community are all coming together. It’s great.”

Barbara’s team operates from Movilla Abbey Church, the building housing both Church of Ireland and Methodist congregations.

“Our slogan at Movilla Abbey is – our buildings are closed but the church is definitely not. We are continuing live streaming on Sunday worship and our life groups are still looking after each other.”

Ards Churches Together can be contacted for help on 07748 235009 or 07927 035828 between 9am and 6pm.

Churches involved include Ards Evangelical Church, North Down CFC, First Ards Presbyterian, Glen Community Church, Reformed Presbyterian, Regent Street Methodist, Salvation Army Scrabo Hall, Scrabo Presbyterian, St Mark’s Church, St Patrick’s Church, Thriving Life Church and Regent Street Presbyterian.

Report courtesy of News Letter and UGC for photo.


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