The government may have abandoned our elderly and infirm but we have not, says retired police officer Alan Buck.

Last autumn, exasperated by the recent Meals on Wheels fiasco, Alan happened to be listening to the BBC Food Programme on Radio Four and what he heard made him sit up and take notice.

It was an item about UK charity, the Casserole Club, as he explains: ’Very simply the Casserole Club matches volunteer cooks with people they call ’diners’.

’These diners may be elderly, infirm, disabled or they could just be someone who’s normally fit and well but has just had a major operation or something and temporarily can’t cook a meal for themselves.

’Casserole Club volunteers share extra portions of home-cooked food with people in their area who aren’t always able to cook for themselves. They share once a week, once a month, or whenever works best for them.’

Listening to this against the background of Isle of Man government’s announcement that it would be withdrawing funding from the Meals on Wheels service, one particular story featured in the radio piece struck a chord with Alan.

’They had an interview with a guy in his late 20s and a chap in his mid 80s who had been put together by the Casserole Club,’ he said.

’They’d reached the stage after about six months where the youngster cooked the meals at home but then went round and ate with the elderly chap and had a really good natter.

’The old guy taught him all about jazz and they’d become friends.

’It was a lovely story and the beauty of it was the youngster was providing more than just a meal and this ties in a little bit with the current Meals on Wheels situation because we’re saying it’s not just drop a meal off it’s somebody to have a little look in for five minutes.

’I thought: "I like cooking so I’ll go home and sign up as a volunteer cook".’

However, when he tried to put in his details, he discovered that the charity’s website wouldn’t accept Isle of Man postcodes.

He says: ’I got in touch and told them to change the algorithms on their website to recognise Isle of Man postcodes. They got back and asked me to find out how many other volunteer cooks would be willing to sign up.’

Alan, who already had 15 people also wanting to volunteer as cooks, then launched a Facebook page called Isle of Man Share a Meal.

Within a week that number had grown to 70 and by the end of November it was 190.

Earlier this month the number of people who had signed up as volunteer cooks on the Facebook site stood at a whopping 582.

Now Alan has just been able to announce that the UK Casserole Club site accepts Isle of Man postcodes and he wants to encourage everyone who joined on the Facebook site to sign up on the charity’s website.

The charity is not yet live on the island and there is work to do before this can happen but they want to gauge the amount of support they would have here before they go any further.

Alan explains where the process will go from there: ’Once it has been ascertained that there are sufficient volunteer cooks in an area, the charity steps in, liaises with existing charities and with the local authorities and businesses which might wish to support the scheme financially, and then gets the whole thing up and running.’

One issue that needs to be addressed, for example, is how the charity can be put in touch with people who would benefit from the service.

In Brighton and Hove, which has roughly double the population of the Isle of Man and a large percentage of elderly residents, the UK Casserole Club works very closely with local social services to identify people who might benefit from a shared meal.

So helpful has the charity been that they now share an office with social services who have also funded a member of staff for the charity. A similar arrangement on the island might well prove beneficial especially whilst the Meals on Wheels service is going through a major transition.

Alan’s message now is to anyone who has signed up on his Facebook page - or anyone else who would like to be a part of this initiative.

He says: ’You can now sign up as a volunteer cook on the UK Casserole Club’s website.

’Don’t worry that it says it’s not in our area yet. Just sign up, it’s on its way! The more who sign up, the sooner we can get started.’