Supporting vital services: Meals on Wheels Week and Malnutrition Awareness Week 2023

From 30th October – 12th November, HILS and colleagues across the sector were busy arranging VIP visits and media interviews to spread the word about Meals on Wheels and raise awareness about malnutrition. 

Meals on Wheels Week

Every year, the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) hosts Meals on Wheels Week to highlight just how essential meal provision services are and the impact on individuals in need throughout the country. Following the daily themes set by the NACC, we organised a variety of social media antics, VIP visits, and radio interviews to showcase our vital Meals Service. Click the links throughout the article to see what we got up to between 30th October – 4th November. 

VIP visits

Tracy Southwell, Managing Director at professional catering equipment company, Hobart UK, joined our Community Team Member, Tania, on a Hertfordshire meals on wheels delivery round. Tracy got to experience our Meals Service first hand and made a brilliant, informative video about our service. 

Later in the week, Neel Radia, NACC meals on wheels lead, joined John Figgins, Nicki Williams, Sue Pritchard, and Jodie Ablitt from West Sussex County Council on a visit to one of their Specialist Day Centres. Around 16 members of the community with dementia or long term, complex social care needs welcomed the team at the centre, coming together to have a delicious, hot, lunchtime meal and showing the VIP visitors the wonderful artwork they had been creating, highlighting just how important lunch clubs are in the community. 

Spreading the word

HILS were live on air when Samantha Day interviewed Sarah Wren, HILS CEO, for 107 Meridian FM to shine a light on all things meals on wheels. West Sussex County Council created a fantastic social media video showcasing our Meals Service and also published a press release that featured in Mid Sussex Times, West Sussex County Times, Littlehampton Gazette, and more. Our social media channels were also jam-packed with helpful tips and tricks, plus inspiring client stories like Rona and Mary’s Meals Service experience.

Business as usual 

Alongside all of these great initiatives to highlight the vital work that we do, we continued to deliver meals to thousands of older and disabled people across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, West Sussex, and Hampshire throughout the week, making sure no one goes hungry. 

Malnutrition Awareness Week

We took part in Malnutrition Awareness Week from 6th – 12th November, also following a daily theme set by The Malnutrition Task Force to help people see what kind of support is on offer and the impact malnutrition prevention can have in the community. The call to action for #UKMAW2023 was that we must continue to work together to raise awareness of preventable malnutrition, start conversations about malnutrition, and use tools to identify people at risk more quickly. 

Sarah Wren took to the mic again to be interviewed live on Mid Sussex Radio by Alan McNamara to talk about the impact malnutrition can have on older people in the community, and why our services are a vital pillar of support in many people’s lives. We also covered the week on social media, sharing our top tips to prevent malnutrition and stay healthy as we age. 

HILS offers a range of services to support people to stay healthy, happy, and independent. Find out more about our Meals Service here: Support at Home: Meals on Wheels