Weekly meals are bringing the Ormeau Road community together thanks to a grant from Tesco.
Every Thursday people have been gathering at the Ballynafeigh Methodist Church in order to enjoy a nice meal together and get to know one another.
The free meals are prepared every week by local charity Root Soup, a catering company that trains people with learning disabilities, and feed around 100 people every week from 6pm to 7pm.
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The project has been run for the past two years with organiser David Hines saying that it has been a brilliant way of building the community and creating friendships.
The church recently received a £1,000 Tesco Community Grant in order to help facilitate the meals.
David Hines from Ballynafeigh Methodist Church said: “We are very grateful to Tesco for its donation which allowed us to provide free meals to people in Belfast.
“We have been running the community meal program for two years and have a regular core of around 100 people who come each week and afterwards, everyone helps to put away tables and clean, it’s a warm convivial atmosphere.
“As people eat and serve together initial friendships are made and this is community-building at the most basic level and is a lot of fun for everyone."
Tesco’s Community Grant scheme uses the money raised from the levy on carrier bags to fund projects across the UK that aims to improve the well-being of people in its local community.
Tony McElroy, Tesco’s Community Manager for Northern Ireland, added: "It’s amazing to see the generous service that Ballynafeigh Methodist Church provides to people in Belfast. It’s organisations like this why our Tesco Community Grants exist as it shows how our grants can help support local communities.”
Tesco works in partnership with Groundwork to deliver its Community Grant funding scheme, which provides grants to thousands of local projects in communities across the UK, all voted on by customers in-store.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop using the blue token given to them at checkouts. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding of between £4,000 and £1,000.
To find out more about Tesco Community Grants go to www.tescocommunitygrants.org.uk.
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