A new volunteer-run community hub and cafe at Billington Lodge in Grange Park is preparing to launch an out-of-hours emergency food service, aimed at supporting families, domestic abuse victims and people facing crisis over evenings, weekends and holidays.
The charity aims to have emergency food parcels available within the next 10 days, in time to help people struggling over the festive period and Christmas Day.
“There’s plenty of food banks in Preston, but there’s nothing out of hours,” said Lee, one of the most recent volunteers, who also runs the Ribbleton Community page on Facebook.
“If people find themselves in difficulties on a Friday or over the weekend, where do they go? This is a hole in the net that we’re trying to fill.”
Read more: Ribbleton nets £2million-a-year funding boost
The longer-term plan is to provide fortnightly emergency food sessions on Saturdays, supporting up to 15 people at a time, with efforts made to accommodate waiting lists.
The Billington Lodge community hub and cafe is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 3pm, with lunch served between 12pm and 1.30pm. The volunteer-run cafe offers tea and toast, toasted sandwiches at lunchtime and hot dogs.
It first opened as a community hub in 2001, originally used by the park ranger as an information centre where visitors could learn about the park’s history and gardens.
After a long period of closure, it was later run by the Let’s Grow charity for around two years before shutting earlier this year.
The closure left many volunteers with nowhere local to go, prompting seven trustees to set up the charity Friends of Billington Lodge & Grange Park, and reopen the building.
Currently, there are eight volunteers including people from the vulnerable adult community helping to make a difference through activities such as gardening and arts and crafts.
The garden and cafe are also giving volunteers and visitors a sense of routine, purpose and connection.
“The volunteers that come and work in the garden are usually people who are wanting time out, or something to do, while in search for employment, it helps give them a focus,” one volunteer said.
“We also have veterans volunteering because it gives them peace of mind in a quiet garden.”
The charity is partnering with Preston City Council and Community Transport to launch a weekly warm space for elderly and isolated residents.
To help fight isolation, transport will be provided to bring people from their homes to the lodge for a hot meal, conversation and social time between 11am and 2pm once a week.
“They’ll come in, have something nice and warm to eat, meet new people, chat and somewhere they can feel less isolated,” said councillor Pat Varty for the Ribbleton ward.
Another trustee said, “This time of year hits people hard, not just in the pocket but in the loneliness as well,” one organiser said.
Volunteers refurbished the building almost entirely themselves after receiving a £500 community grant from the council, which arrived after most of the work had already been completed.
Now a public room can be hired by the local community for local events and personal celebratory reasons.
Trustee cllr Varty explained: “We refurbished this building ourselves and put all that work in ourselves without one penny from the council because we’d only just received that money,”
“It just goes to show what you can achieve with a great team behind you.”
The group is also working with local schools and community groups, with monthly litter picks taking place and plans underway to build raised beds so disabled visitors can fully access the gardens.
Organisers say the work is important in an area facing severe deprivation. Ribbleton and neighbouring St Matthew’s were named among the most deprived wards in Lancashire in a government report last year.
The charity is looking to develop a longer-term idea for a green prescription style food scheme, where GPs, social services or the council could issue a food prescription to people struggling financially, allowing them to collect food directly without charge.
“Our idea is to trial it here and see how it goes,” Lee said. “If it works locally, it’s something that could even go national.”
Volunteers say awareness of the café is growing as more people notice the building is now open, with a new sign being installed to make this clearer to regular park goers and visitors.
“Every day we see a new face,” said Cllr Varty. “People love seeing the lights on.”
To find out more about the community hub and its events visit the Friends of Billington Lodge & Grange Park Facebook page.
Support Blog Preston: Keep our community reporting going and view the website without any adverts too. Sign up for a membership today.
Stay updated: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox. Help us report too, by contacting us if you see something we should be reporting on.
Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines
