WHEN Jasminder Love set up a lunch club for her elderly neighbours she had no idea there would be such an appetite for the scheme.

Now, after four months, the Nuneham Courtenay Adult Luncheon Club is fit to bursting, with 50 regulars and a waiting list of nine people.

County councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale this week presented the group with £2,000 from the Big Society fund to buy new catering equipment and install vermin-proof cupboards at the village hall.

Nuneham Courtenay parish councillor Mrs Love, 56, said: “We had the first lunch at Christmas and they went crazy for it. It is a real success story of commitment and hard work and people love it.

“I hope it may inspire other villages and towns to do the same.”

The club’s head chef, Georgia Gillet, had a career in catering and now serves up gourmet fish pies and lasagne to charm her 50-odd diners.

All the work is done by volunteers, and the money for the food is raised through regular raffles with prizes donated by village residents.

The idea was sparked when the Nuneham Courtenay Village Plan identified a need for a luncheon club for its over-50s.