Trust’s community care boost

Jenny Garing and Glenda Davies are part of the Pelorus Area Health Trust who volunteer their time to help create a stronger community.

A rural health trust geared towards helping vulnerable people can now connect with more of the community.

The Pelorus Area Health Trust in Havelock provides a vital service, with volunteers taking to the roads with hot soup and smiling faces.

Now the trust has been able to expand into neighbouring premises, creating a new Community Lounge next to their current charity shop.

Grateful for a helpful landlord’s assistance and flexibility with their ideas, the Health Trust’s Chairwoman Glenda Davies and Administrator Jenny Garing have plans in the works to create even more community connections.

“We have community groups or organisations like the Lions join us, but we are open to anyone – whether you just need some time off, health advice or a cup of tea and a chat, we’re here,” says Jenny.

“Even if it’s something as easy as organizing someone to do the lawns or a podiatrist appointment – we even had one of our lovely firefighters volunteer times to install some smoke detectors.”

Each Friday, soup, bread rolls and sweet treat deliveries currently go to more than 30 homes across the Pelorus region.

Volunteers stay for a chat which helps combat loneliness while seeing how else they can assist, taking away the pressure from people to ask for help.

Glenda, Jenny and the Trust noticed another key issue was assisting the partners of dependent people.

They now host a retired nurse on Fridays to advise for people looking after those with Alzheimer's or Dementia – or allowing them to have some time off or to run errands.

“We’ve had mums and three kids come in just for a change of surroundings, to a man from D’Urville Island who needed to stay with us and have bandages changed daily - because our key is assisting people how they need it by just being there.”

“We eventually want to bring together people we deliver to the Lounge for an activity day, make organic connections to one another and fight loneliness together,” Jenny says.

Soup mastermind and sweet treat creator Glenda says she loves cooking up community spirit and encourages people that struggle to reach out, even if it’s only for a Friday meal and a chat.

“We started doing the soup because there’s no Meals on Wheels around Marlborough and people who can’t cook are living off frozen ready meals and are so isolated.

“All of the ingredients are donated, and the rolls are supplied by the Havelock Four Square - I even do a special vegan soup for those who ask.”

“The weekly soup shows that the smallest thing that may seem simple spreads a bit of love.”

The Pelorus Area Health Trust try to cover the Pelorus from funding with charity stores, grants and donations, however they run on volunteer hours – so supporting the Trust with time, donations or shopping supports the most vulnerable in the Pelorus.