The Kent Probation Service approached Age Concern with a proposal to run a lunch club that would reach out to the elderly and help to change offenders' behaviour. Age Concern could not afford to run it but we could, and we took it on for a six-month trial period. That was 18 years ago and Northfleet Lunch Club is still going.

The aim of community service is to give offenders work that will benefit the public. In Northfleet, 16 per cent of the population is over the age of 65. Many elderly people suffer acute loneliness and isolation and we wanted to do something to help them socialise. Many were not having a good hot meal all week. There was a need to reach out and we thought that this project would respond to a real community need.

Supervisors take on eight to twelve offenders per week The group is dynamic — some have received 120 hours' service, others 300 hours. The group is constantly changing but we try to establish a nucleus to help them to bond. We buy food and prepare a roast dinner. Then we collect the elderly people who have no transport and are cut off.

On a typical Sunday we have between 20 and 30 pensioners. It is a social outing — if it were not for the lunch club they would spend all day indoors, alone. We serve tea and biscuits, chat to them, then serve a three-course lunch. Afterwards we play bingo or other games — we give out prizes — then take them home. They look forward to Sundays now.

Some offenders already know how to cook. Others we teach food hygiene and cooking skills — they are always supervised closely. Recently we've had 16 offenders achieve a certification in Skills at Work, a pre-NVQ level qualification that will help them to find employment.

Offenders get very enthusiastic. We recently had one who was an unemployed young single mother sentenced to 120 hours for assault. She said that her life had been transformed by the experience. At the beginning she was very shy and introverted. Since she started she has not missed a single session and she has a real affinity with many of the elderly people. She is much more confident now - I don't think we will see her coming back.

Last year offenders undertook 3,325 hours of work. It is a punishment — they are away from their family from 8.30am until 4pm.

No one chooses to do eight hours' work without pay. But they benefit because they see people who are worse off than them, less able than them, more socially isolated. They develop empathy. Elderly people are socially excluded but offenders feel socially excluded as well, so this enables them to benefit from each other. When you see an offender with an old person it is quite something. It also helps older people feel less afraid of being victims of crime.

I would dearly love to change people's perception of what community service involves. It has been recognised that unpaid work is one of the most effective sentences within the criminal justice system. The real public benefit is where members of the community have direct contact with offenders. We do an awful lot of work behind the scenes but most people do not know who we are. This year we received an award from the Howard League for Penal Reform for a scheme of special merit. It is good to see the project get some recognition.

Stuart Cullen is the community payback manager at the Kent Probation Service

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