Joanne and Tracey loading the eskys containing the precious cargo of nutritious meals for delivery.
CONTRIBUTED BY WYNNUM AND MANLY DISTRICT MEALS ON WHEELS
For the past 54 years Meals on Wheels have prepared fresh meals, Monday to Friday, plus fresh cook-chill and frozen meals for weekends.
In May 2020, Wynnum and Manly District Meals on Wheels commenced operation from a modern kitchen capable of producing hundreds of hot, nutritious meals per day. In fact, last year the kitchen produced 33,000 meals!
The operation is driven by a wonderful group of volunteers, who are the backbone of the service, and deliver meals to those who are frail and aged, and younger people with disabilities.
“We do what we do best,” said President Ken Edwards OAM.
“Our volunteers deliver much more than freshly prepared, nutritious home-style cooked meals. They provide a friendly smile, social interaction, and the opportunity to check on a person’s well-being. Our volunteers may be the only people the recipients see.”
The Meals on Wheels kitchen, located at 880 Manly Road Wakerley, has an accredited five-star food service rating from the Brisbane City Council. The building houses an auditorium which can seat up to 160 people, and a welcoming volunteer lounge and kitchen. There are also training facilities and a boardroom equipped for teleconferencing.
Environmentally friendly, the builder is equipped to harvest water (50,000 litres) and hosts a facility for charging electric vehicles. There’s also 80 solar panels, soon to be backed up with nine batteries providing a total system size of 31.95 KWH.
If you’d like to volunteer, please visit https://www.qmow.org/volunteers to register your interest.
Two fantastic volunteers, Allan and Trish, preparing to deliver meals. Photos: Supplied.
