Lunch club founder dished up an honour
EVEN the best laid plans can have a comic twist as Stratford charity champion, Jo Wheelwright-Horne, found out when she telephoned the Cabinet Office in London to see if anyone there wanted to make a booking for the next Sunday Lunch Club meeting which she was arranging only to be told by the Office she’d been awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2023 New Year Honours List.
The news came as a total surprise to Jo, aged 58, who has raised £82,000 over the last six years for charity. All she knew was her daughter – Grace – insisted Jo make the call and provided her mum with a telephone number to ring.
“My daughter called me when my husband – Alex - and I were at a garden centre. It was the 14th December and Grace just said you’ve got to call this woman on this number and I kept asking ‘who is she – is it to do with the lunch club?’ But Grace kept saying ‘mum, you need to ‘phone this woman’ so I did and I asked her if she wanted to make a booking for the next lunch club on 18th December? The lady who I was told to ring – had a little laugh to herself - and then said she was from the Cabinet Office and that I’d been awarded a New Year Honour to which I just replied ‘pardon?’ I really couldn’t speak properly and said to Alex straight afterwards, ‘you’ll never guess what?’ In the end I had to ‘phone the woman again to check I’d understood her correctly and she confirmed I’d been awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the community in Stratford.”
The hush-hush top-secret mission was two years in the making from the moment Grace decided to nominate her mum for the award but Grace wasn’t the only one who had to remain tight-lipped throughout, as Alex was in on the secret as well.
It was Grace’s job to keep her ‘contacts’ up to date with any new fund-raising activities Jo and Sunday Lunch Club members were involved with so a record could be maintained in addition to notes on how the club came into existence.
Although the letter from the Cabinet Office confirming Jo’s honour was dated 5th December she didn’t actually receive it until 21st because of the post-strike.
Lunch club was set-up in September 2016 and each year holds between eight and ten Sunday lunch meetings. So far it has raised £82,000 for charities in the area and Jo has ambitions to hit the £100,000 mark this Christmas.
Bringing a smile to people’s faces and supporting charities and causes which have touched people’s lives is what the Sunday Lunch Club is all about but for Jo it started as a story born out of grief.
“I lost my mum, Grace, to a brain tumour nine years ago and it devastated the whole family. She was 82 and was still working and cooking, she was so strong and at the very heart of our family. Mum was diagnosed in February 2013 and died in the July after a seizure - it broke my heart. I didn’t go out for ages and was overcome with grief. One day I decided to go out for Sunday lunch and took a few pictures just to let people know I was out and about again. When friends saw them they said ‘we missed you – why didn’t you let us know, we would have joined you?’ That night in bed I started thinking about setting up a Sunday lunch club where people could meet, socialise and have some food together. Even though our family was fragmented during the week on Sunday we always came together for lunch – nobody should be alone on a Sunday lunchtime,” Jo said.
And so it started. In September 2016 the first lunch club was held and 17 members gathered at the Keys and Kitchen. By the time of the second lunch, 40 met up in the Garrick. The third sitting of the club held at the Bear saw 65 members ready to tuck in and talk over a delicious Sunday roast.
Lunch club now has 800 members and dining places to events are “filled within 15 minutes” Jo told the Herald.
The recent Christmas lunch held at The Embankment Bar and Restaurant, attracted 167 guests and raised £4,800. The money was divided between last year’s chosen charity Molly Ollys - £11,000 raised in total - and funding for more defibrillators in Stratford of which there are now six additional boxes thanks to the generous donations of club members. The defibrillators have already saved two lives, one at The Farm, Snitterfield and one at the Coach House in Stratford.
When lunch club first started it was - for Jo - the perfect opportunity to raise money in memory of her late mother and so she chose Brain Tumour Support because of the compassion and care it offers people in their time of greatest need. Jo admits she and her family didn’t know where to turn and wish they’d known about Brain Tumour Support at the time Grace passed away. The lunch club raised £33,400 for the charity making it the highest fund raiser for the cause in England at one stage.
“Having achieved that wonderful goal we asked members what local charities we should support with our lunches? We always want to support local causes and hold our lunches at local businesses. We have raised money for Brain Tumour Support, Warwickshire Air Ambulance, Myton Hospice, Molly Ollys and Ameici Dog Rescue from which I have adopted two pet dogs. This year we are supporting Shakespeare Hospice and Warwickshire Vision Support which helps people who are partially sighted or blind. People are so generous at lunch club and it’s so good to see them enjoying themselves. They can be old, young married, single or might have recently lost a loved one it doesn’t matter as we are all in this together,” Jo said.
Her career was in catering. At 28 she was a pastry chef at Ettington Park Hotel and then Nuthurst Grange Hotel in Hockley Heath and latterly Jo was the franchise catering chef at Stratford Golf Club before she retired to look after her dad, Charles.
Sadly, Charles passed away in 2019 but at least he saw Jo receive the Pride of Stratford Award for 2018 where he cried at the ceremony.
In fact, Jo has been rather successful when it comes to awards. In addition to the Medal of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in the 2023 New Year Honours and Pride of Stratford, she was presented with the Warwickshire Community and Voluntary Action (CAVA) Community Impact Award on 11th October 2022 and a fortnight later, Sunday Lunch Club won the Community Support Award at the Herald Business and Tourism Awards held at the Crowne Plaza.
"I must mention my regular helpers - Karl Aust, Caroline Conrad, Vanessa Macnee and Anita Jarratt who are always buy my side in fundraising and support," Jo said.
Jo will be presented with her BEM medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox and will also be invited to attend a Royal Garden Party in a few months’ time.
Reflecting on the journey she has taken so far, Jo said:
“The magic of lunch club is there are so many spokes to it. Of course, it raises money for charity but it also brings people together who didn’t know each other before and perhaps didn’t know anybody that well at all. The friendships made means I see some members going on holiday together and having meals together and I’m really happy for all of them. Mum and dad would both be exceptionally proud of the New Year Honour. For me personally, I felt that helping others through the lunch club has helped me grieve.”
