Woodland Grove Care Home in Essex is helping tackle loneliness this Christmas Day by opening its doors to welcome isolated members of the community for lunch

This Christmas, Woodland Grove is opening its doors to welcome isolated members of the community for Christmas lunch. Woodland Grove is asking locals and organisations supporting the town’s older people to nominate individuals who may face spending the festive season alone.

Home Manager, Hazel McGwyne said: “We know there will be many people who don’t have anyone to spend the day with. We would like to invite a small number of people to come into our home and have lunch with us.

“Our head chef, Laura Allars, and her team make a fantastic Christmas roast, there’ll be mince pies and maybe a glass or two to celebrate the day!

“Good company and good food can do a lot for our wellbeing and who knows – it could also be the start of a lovely friendship for someone.”

Woodland Grove, which offers residential, nursing, memory and respite care, will be visited by Father Christmas and his helpers on the 25th December who’ll be handing out gifts.  There will be traditional festive music, mince pies and the Queen’s Speech shown in the home’s cinema room.

Woodland Grove’s Lifestyle staff, who organise the festive entertainment, were recently shortlisted for ‘Activities Team of the Year’ in the Caring UK national care awards.

Hazel said: “As much as we would like to, we can’t welcome everyone who might benefit from some Christmas company, so we’d like to hear from people as soon as possible about a friend, neighbour or client we could welcome on the day.”

To nominate someone for Christmas lunch at Woodland Grove, contact Kiera Helsey at lifestyles.wg@oaklandcare.com or call 0208 508 9220.