Fellowship Lunch

Sunday Lunch with a difference - just add 30 people!

Six Sundays each year, a small group of Merton Park people don their aprons and head off to St Mary’s Parish Hall. Their mission? - to prepare a two-course roast Sunday lunch for around 30 local, mainly elderly, residents.

The Fellowship Lunch team has been offering periodic Sunday lunches to local people (many, but not all of them, older members of the St Mary’s congregation) for more than 10 years. The service started when it was realised that many older single people were missing out on a traditional roast lunch, simply because it’s often impractical to buy the ingredients and cook a full roast for just one.

For £6, guests enjoy a traditional roast with all the trimmings, plus a dessert, coffee and a glass of wine. 

Graham McCubbin, one of the founding members of the team, agrees that the food is only one aspect of the service. “As the name Fellowship Lunch suggests, a crucial added ingredient is the company and social interaction we’re able to provide for older people. It’s incredibly rewarding to see 30 people enjoying time together and it’s thoroughly worth the planning and preparation needed to make it all happen.”

The team also provides transport to and from the lunch for those with limited mobility living in sheltered accommodation in nearby Church Lane and other local roads, and often packs of leftover meat for guests to take home so they can make a cold roast sandwich for themselves.

If you’d like to book a place for the next Fellowship Lunch (spaces are limited so we operate on a first-come, first-served basis), then please phone Anita Simpson on 020 8543 3764 or email adsimpson68@yahoo.co.uk. Dates are published in Parish Matters, and also appear in the Church Calendar on the website homepage.