Charity has many facets in Glasgow. Walking across George Square on Saturday you would see women sensibly clad in rain-jackets holding signs encouragingly stating "Refugees Welcome". A few yards away in the City Chambers, two floors up in the Banqueting Hall, women were glamorously dressed, munching a lunch of seared fillet of beer chasseur before dancing to "You're Just Too Good To Be True" by Four Seasons tribute band The Jersey Tones. Each, in their different ways, were showing the city's caring side.

The crowd in George Square was demonstrating to cynical politicians that people in the city were willing to help refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria. The diners in the banqueting suite were actually helping folk nearer to home. For this was the Lord Provost's Charity Lunch, held annually where people, and it is mainly women, buy seats or tables at the lunch, eat good food, drink wine, buy raffle tickets, bid in the auction, and just generally have a good time. I'm with them on this. I'm always in the group that believes giving to charity can involve a meal and drink rather than the sweat of running a marathon or the discomfort of sitting in a bath of beans.

This year's lunch, chaired of course by Lord Provost Sadie Docherty, raised £25,000 which will be equally shared between two charities, The Good Morning Service and Silver Line Scotland. Not heard of them? Well I hadn't, but I suspect that's the point in that Sadie is keen to help charities that don't have huge public profiles. But goodness, are they needed. Rachel Norman from Silver Line told the diners that the charity, founded by Esther Rantzen, helps old people battling loneliness and depression by providing human contact on the phone 24 hours a day. Simple, but so effective.

Said Rachel: "Older people are particularly vulnerable. Too many are forced to spend days, even weeks in 'solitary confinement'. As one Silver Line caller wrote, 'I spend every day looking at the same four walls, not speaking to anyone.'

"We receive lots of calls from people throughout the night who just need someone to reach out to when they can’t pick up the phone to anybody else. We have a regular caller to the helpline who simply calls to say ‘goodnight’, as it helps her to sleep better ending her day with human contact and knowing that we would notice if she didn’t call."

Bonds are built up between the volunteers and the elderly. "Another caller Fred that I spoke to over a year ago when he was very low in confidence, has since told me that he now has the self-esteem to start conversations out doing his shopping. He had previously been so isolated that he didn’t believe he had anything of interest to say and that nobody would want to speak to him," said Rachel.

Similarly The Good Morning Service covering Glasgow and South Ayrshire phones hundreds of pensioners every morning at a pre-arranged time for a blether and to check they are ok. Medical appointments are kept track of for the elderly, and the callers also warn them of any bogus workmen in their area. No reply to the call, and further checks are made to ensure they are in fine fettle. One pensioner, Archie, who is 68, tells me: "I used to be lonely. The service gives reassurance, comfort and makes me feel at ease with life. I'm on my own but don't feel it, if you know what I mean. Gives me a lift on bad pain days."

Good to know that the humble phone can be such a helpline rather than something to be avoided these days as the only calls I get at home are folk giving me a bad time for not applying for a bank refund, or for not seeking compensation for a workplace accident I never realised I had.

So £25,000 raised in only one afternoon. Of course Sadie Docherty has a trick up her sleeve. The Lord Provost can hold the charity dinner in the richly decorated Banqueting Hall, truly one of Glasgow's most magnificent salons. The ceiling is over 50 foot high and has three stunning chandeliers weighing half a ton each. Above the entrance, overlooked by many visitors is a minstrel gallery. As council officer Anne Maxwell told me: "You can really only call it a banqueting hall if it has a minstrel gallery." She added with fine logic: "Otherwise it is just a hall." On the back wall are three huge murals of life in Glasgow, including one of shipbuilding by Sir John Lavery which is worth a visit just to gaze at the detail in it. It was in this room of course that Nelson Mandela received the freedom of the city, as did Billy Connolly and Sir Alex Ferguson.

In the room I spot Susan Haughey - Lady Haughey - wife of philanthropist Willie Haughey, who helps the Lord Provost put the charity lunch together - and probably gently twists the arms of a few companies who donate the raffle prizes which helps reach the £25,000 total for the charities.

The windows on the opposite wall from the murals overlook George Square where a speaker is demanding more action from politicians over Syria. Inside teenager Ellé Crumlish from Hutchie School is belting out some ballads for the diners. She wants to be a full-time singer and her dad asked the LP if she could sing at last year's lunch, and Sadie invited her back again this year. Then the dancing starts and I realise not for the first time that women can really enjoy themselves with their pals and don't actually need men around to have a good time.

It may seem a strange contrast, laughing women downing pinot grigio below chandeliers while others stand in the cutting wind of George Square holding banners, but both groups are helping people in their own way. It's good that Glasgow can do both.