‘We run a lunch club – but we need people to feed’ – BBC
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
A couple in Sheffield have set up a free lunch club for children and their parents over the school summer holidays, but say their main problem is a shortage of people turning up rather than a shortage of food. Melvyn Newton, 65, and his wife Carolyn, 56, launched the drop-in service at St Margaret's Church in Wincobank, which runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays between midday and 2pm, offering hot meals with no referral or booking required. Melvyn, who has previously run similar schemes in Manchester and worked with the charity Food Works, said feeding people had 'always been my passion', having done it both on the streets and in church halls, and pointed out that families can struggle during the school holidays when they lose access to free school meals.
Despite having food, volunteers and kitchen facilities in place, the club has reported low footfall, with organisers saying too few local people are aware it exists. The couple, who have recently become foster parents, said this had limited the time available to promote the service further, and they are now appealing for wider community awareness so that families who need support know the lunch club is there for them. The story, reported by BBC News, highlights a broader issue facing holiday food provision schemes: that visibility and outreach can be as significant a challenge as funding or resources when it comes to reaching families experiencing hardship during school breaks.
- Sources
- 4
- Outlets
- 4
- Left · Centre · Right
- 0 · 2 · 0
In short
- A Sheffield couple, Melvyn and Carolyn Newton, opened a free school-holiday lunch club at St Margaret's Church in Wincobank
- The drop-in service runs Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12pm-2pm, with no referral needed, but is struggling with low attendance
- Organisers say they have food, volunteers and space ready but need more local families to know about and use the service
How this story developed
- 2 months ago A couple in Sheffield have set up a free lunch club for children and their parents over the school summer holidays, but say their main problem is a shortage of people turning up rather than a shortage of food.
- 2 months ago The supplied material does not contain the BBC article itself; it only shows Google’s cookie and sign-in notice.
- 🔎 Sheffield ‘We run a lunch club – but we need people to feed’ – BBC
- feeds.bbci.co.uk 'We run a lunch club – but we need people to feed'
- BBC News 'We run a lunch club – but we need people to feed'
- AOL (syndicated) 'We run a lunch club – but we need people to feed'
Full account
A new lunch club offering free hot meals to children and parents over the school holidays has opened at St Margaret's Church in Wincobank, Sheffield, but its founders say the biggest obstacle is a lack of awareness rather than a lack of resources. Melvyn and Carolyn Newton, who set up the venture, say they have willing volunteers, a well-equipped kitchen and a steady supply of food, yet too few visitors have come through the door so far. The pair have had little opportunity to promote the club because they became foster carers shortly before it launched, leaving them stretched between the two commitments.
Melvyn, 65, ran similar lunch clubs while living in Manchester and was determined to start one after the couple settled in Wincobank. He described feeding people as a lifelong passion, having done it on the street as well as in church halls, and credited his time delivering for the food redistribution charity Food Works with spurring him on. The club relies on surplus food donated by shops that would otherwise throw it away, with Asian supermarkets among the most generous contributors, he said, adding that all the goodwill from donors counts for little without enough diners to feed.
The club runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays from midday to 2pm, serving a main course and pudding to anyone who turns up, with no referral or booking required. On one recent day the menu was cheese and onion pie with steamed cabbage, carrots and wedges, followed by cake, though Melvyn said he is able to adapt to whatever ingredients come in — recalling one occasion in Manchester when a delivery of ten boxes of cucumbers was turned into what he called the best soup he has ever made. The Newtons hope the club fills a gap for families during the holidays, when the absence of free school meals adds to household costs, and they intend to keep it running once term resumes in September.
Carolyn, 56, who has spent years working with families, said having people back in the church was welcome after periods when the building would otherwise stand empty. Drawing on her own experience of feeling isolated as a new mother once summer activities wound down, she said the aim is to create a welcoming space where people feel part of a community. The couple, who became foster parents three months ago after being approved on a Monday and welcoming their first foster child just three days later, are now balancing that new responsibility with efforts to get word of the lunch club out to the families who need it.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
Three of the four supplied reports (Sources 2, 3 and 4) are near-identical versions of the same BBC article, with no differences in facts or quotes; Source 2 additionally includes photo captions naming Melvyn and Carolyn Newton, which the others omit.
Source 1 contained no usable article text — it was a Google sign-in/cookie-consent page rather than news content — so it could not be drawn on for reporting.
Because the surviving sources are essentially one article repeated, there is no genuine divergence in emphasis to report; all details (times, menu, quotes, fostering timeline) are consistent across them.
Explained simply
The lunch club referred to in the headline is a small community initiative that provides free or low-cost meals to people, but the report highlights a common problem for such projects: organisers can struggle to find and reach the people most likely to benefit, even when the service itself is ready and available.
Community lunch clubs like this are often run by volunteers, charities or local groups, and typically aim to support people who might otherwise eat alone, go without a proper meal, or lack easy access to food, such as older people, those on low incomes or people who are isolated. They rely on word of mouth, local referrals or outreach to make sure the people who need them actually know they exist.
Stories like this matter because they point to a wider issue in community and social support services: provision alone does not guarantee that help reaches those who need it, and connecting people with existing resources can be as much of a challenge as setting up the service in the first place.
Coverage · 4 sources
Bias meters
From 2 rated sources, 2 unrated.
Geopolitics Politics Sheffield