The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Royal Voluntary Service lunch club at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, in her role as Patron of the Royal Voluntary Service on Thursday. Camilla served lunch to the elderly and met with volunteers of the charity. The volunteers spoke about the recent challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Camilla finally meeting Doris Winfield
The Duchess was invited to visit by Doris Winfield, who revealed she has been secretly talking with the Duchess since the height of lockdown in spring by telephone and letter. Doris came to the Royal Voluntary Service through its lockdown ‘check in and chat’ service.
Camilla expressed her delight when she saw “famous Doris” and was glad to finally meet in person.
Doris said: “Lockdown was a very lonely time for people like me, I really missed coming here. I used to come every day and now I only come two.”
Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall, President of the Royal Voluntary Service, helps serve lunch during a visit at the Mill End lunch club in Rickmansworth
“Her letters cheered me up no end.”
Camilla got stuck in, rolled up her sleeves and severed lunch to a group of pensioners. The RVS serve cooked lunches on every weekday for the elderly.
The Duchess gave Kay Francis her food, one of the attendees, who uses the lunch club to socialise. Kay, who is almost blind and hard of hearing, had no idea her waitresses was a senior member of the Royal Family!
Lovely moment today when the Duchess of Cornwall served up food at the Mill End lunch club organised by the @RoyalVolService Kay Francis, 96, who is almost blind, had no idea she had a royal waitress and asked Camilla to cut up her food – which she happily did. pic.twitter.com/OzZwXXkVmE
— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) October 8, 2020
The Royal wore a visor and a mask inside, and perspex partitions allowed users to sit and talk.
Camilla, who has previously downplayed her cooking abilities, appeared to be in her element when it came to desserts. The Duchess proved to have an elegant hand when it came to piping cream on top of the individual trifles alongside fellow volunteers from the Royal Voluntary Service in the kitchen.
Camilla told the volunteers she was ‘proud’ to be part of the RVS after helping out with the lunch club.
Royal Voluntary Service is one of the largest voluntary service organisations in the UK. They aim to inspire and enable volunteers to use their skills, experience, energy and time to help people in need in hospitals, at home and in the local community.
The charity’s volunteers improve the patient experience in hospital, aid recovery after a stay on ward, help older people support themselves at home, stay fit and active and build meaningful social connections.
In 2017, The Duchess of Cornwall hosted a reception for the charities ‘Our Amazing People’ campaign at Clarence House.
