Alderley Edge Luncheon Club, which is run by Royal Voluntary Service volunteers, has been through a challenging few weeks.
A gas leak was discovered coming from their large range cooker at Alderley Edge Methodist Church, which is used to prepare a hot two course meal on Tuesdays and Thursdays to retired people living in the area.
The first gas engineer could not repair the appliance, as parts for 40 year old cookers are not readily available, which meant the cooker could not be used as it was unsafe. Fortunately another gas engineer managed to track down a suitable part which was fitted on Friday, 26th June.
Unfortunately they had to cancel luncheon club for one day, as they were hoping that the original engineer would be mending the cooker on that day, but otherwise the volunteers have managed to produce a meal for twenty or more people each Tuesday and Thursday using just the small domestic cooker that sits next to their commercial range cooker.
Anne Bale, luncheon club manager, said "We have certainly learned a lot over the last few weeks including how helpful local businesses have been. On Thursdays Wienholts have baked pies and quiches for us so that we could also serve a hot pudding. On Tuesdays we have managed by serving a cold pudding so that we could cook a hot main course."
Anne added "Even though the cooker is now mended we realise that we will need to come up with a plan for when we do need to replace it. Unfortunately it is not the fairly straightforward operation of removing the old gas cooker and replacing it with a new one because we would have to bring the extraction system up to current standards which would cost several thousands of pounds.
"This means that we will also have to consider installing an electric cooker or a domestic range cooker and so we will need to do a lot of research to compare costs and performance. If anyone has any expertise in such matters we would love to hear from them."
In the meantime the Alderley Edge Luncheon Club, which celebrated its 50th birthday last year, can continue to prepare tasty meals for their members - many of whom are in their 80s and 90s.
They currently have a few vacancies for members and as always they welcome new volunteers. Email Anne Bale or call her 01625 582514 if you would like to join the luncheon club or would like to help in any way.
