Surrey councillor hosts Christmas dinner to combat loneliness in her local area
Deb Shiner from Tandridge District Council, has been hosting Christmas dinners since COVID
A Surrey councillor is hosting a Christmas dinner for those facing loneliness in her local area
Deb Shiner who is a councillor for the Tandridge District Council, has been hosting Christmas dinners since covid which see up to 50 people attending
Shiner told us she has noticed loneliness becoming more and more of a problem since the pandemic
"We have found since COVID, some people, because they had to go into lockdown because they were vulnerable, have never really resurfaced.
They are spending Christmas Day on their own with no one. Now either that is through choice, or it may be that they just have nobody to celebrate it with."
As the event hosts up to 50 people, Shiner was quick to tell us about all the help the local community provides in supporting the event.
"We wouldn't be able to do it without the volunteers.
We go to our local supermarkets and local stores and all of them donate either food vouchers.
We currently have the local care home chefs doing us some canapes for this year and our local garden centre doing us a Christmas cake
And we have our local pub who cooks our meat and slices it for us."
Shiner started hosting the event just after the pandemic and says she has had fantastic feedback each year and continues to see the event grow.
"They're booking to come following year on the way out. It has been really, really positive. They have said how much they enjoyed it, not just having something to meet, but the company. Which is really important to them.
When we started we had 23 people. Last year we had 34 people and this year we're hoping to get between 45 and 50 people."