A CLUB that provides a weekly hot meal and friendship to lonely people will be closing after 24 years.

Today is the last day the Triangle Lunch Club at Worcester’s YMCA will be meeting because of the sale of the building.

Margaret Dixon who has run the club since it began said: “It will be a sad day for us all, helpers, members, and kitchen staff, but we have to move with the times.”

“I worked in the office at The YMCA before I started the club. We are all members of the local church St Clement’s, and we just like serving people and seeing that they have a good meal at least once a week. We have some people who have been coming all these years.

It’s a good atmosphere and everybody likes to come along.”

Triangle has provided people with a healthy meal once a week for a fee of £3, and has been open to anyone over 50 years of age that meets the criteria. The club has met at the same venue on Henwick Road each Tuesday since it was set up on February 21,1995. The group was set up by Age UK (Worcester and District), YMCA and Ageing Well. A committee was elected to organise it from members of these organisations.Worcester YMCA provided the food and the facilities.

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Mrs Dixon added: “There was nothing like it about when we started.”

Membership was drawn from the local community, some with referral from Age UK. It catered for all needs, and those in wheelchairs were brought in by Worcester Wheels which picked them up from their home and took them back again.

Triangle had a weekly raffle and members would bring in prizes, the raffle paid for a free meal at Christmas.

The club will not be relocating as there is no where suitable in the nearby area to move the club to, most of the members are elderly and cannot travel long distances, and Mrs Dixon says there are now clubs and services available which meet the needs of local older people.