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60
Lambeth Old People's Welfare Association
The work of the Lambeth Old People's Welfare Association
continued throughout the year. The Association receives consider
able financial assistance from the Lambeth Borough Council and
acts as the Council's agent in those activities which the Council
is unable to carry on directly.
The following details of the work of the Association have
been obtained from its latest report, and refer to the year ending
31st March, 1960.
" In reporting the steady progress which has taken place
during the year under review it will be interesting to look back
to the early days in the life of this Association and to see what
has been accomplished.
In December 1945, the inaugural meeting was held in Lambeth
Town Hall and His Worship the Mayor presided as President of the
Association, a tradition which has been continued each successive
year by the Mayor in office. At this meeting it was agreed that
the most important needs were the provision of meals and clubs
and the visiting of lonely or sick people but it was not until
September 1946 that the Meals Service started and it is reported
that eleven people had meals twice a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Meals
The present position is very different. In the Northern end
of the Borough which is served by the Association the total number
of meals served in the year under review was 28,276 of which 6,004
were served in bulk to clubs and 22,272 to individuals in their
homes. In the Southern end of the Borough which is served by the
W.V.S, 27, 460 meals were served all to old people in their homes,
making a total of 55,736 and benefitting 235 individual people
in the Borough,
Clubs
In April 1946 it was reported that the third Darby and Joan
Club had just been opened and that the clubs were proving a great
success, In Lambeth there are now 30 Darby and Joan Clubs all
doing wonderful work. In recent years clubs have been opened
Which are entirely run by the old folk themselves under the
1eadership of one of their members and in each case the experiment
has proved a great success.