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.
Multicultural Monday
Multicultural Monday is all about recognising the diversity of the meals on wheels service, and how it connects and offers meals to cater for all.
Here are some pictures of a multicultural tasting event we attended a few weeks ago.
This was a great chance for some multicultural potential clients to try some of our multicultural meals and learn more about how meals on wheels could be useful for them! They loved the food and the service they received!
Thank you Tuesday
We are extremely grateful and thankful for our drivers, suppliers and teams who work hard every day, 365 days a year to make sure no one goes without a meal! To say thank you, we sent out some chocolate treats to all of our teams. A sweet surprise to keep them going as they undertake some of the most important jobs.
VIP on wheels
We have had a number of councillors and MP’s visiting HILS to experience what it is like to be on the ground making a difference. They delivered meals and engaged with clients to hear first-hand experience of daily life delivering and receiving meals on wheels.
Mayor of Hertford – Councillor Rachel Carter visited and shadowed a round
Councillor Kingsbury visited us at St Albans where he met CEO Sarah Wren, and was interviewed by Greatest Hits radio, before going out to meet Rosemary, one of our clients. Working with the council is essential for the running of meals on wheels at HILS as the council funding helps to keep our prices as low as possible so that we can reach more people in need of our meals and help prevent malnutrition, which in turn helps to prevent hospital admissions. Thank you to the council for supporting our communities!
Councillor Oppenheimer of Petersfield who is also the Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing of Hampshire County Council joined us on a round to deliver hot meals to some of our clients. Councillor Oppenheimer enjoyed learning more about HIS and met some of the clients who benefit from the service.
“HILS play such an important role in providing a healthy and nutritious meal to people who may otherwise not have access to a hot meal. It helps the clients to stay independent in their own home and provides them with a wellbeing check which gives the client or next of kin peace of mind. The clients have explained how they can choose their meals and the variety they can chose between. I have also found out which meals their favourites are on this round”.
Councillor Oppenheimer was joined by Steve, our community team member, who explained more about his role and why he enjoys it. “I enjoy delivering the meals to people as I enjoy interacting with people and helping others. The clients appreciate a hot meal every day as many cannot get out so it may be the only people, they see all day so try and have a laugh and chat with them where we can”
We were also joined by Hampshire County Council who followed Councillor Oppenheimer and Steve around on the route to get some photos and filming for a promotional video for our meals on wheels service. We got some behind the scene photos of the process of making a video and also learnt about the latest TikTok trends which Councillor Oppenheimer happily to took part in.
Connect Thursday
Our clients have a great connection with the drivers they get to know and love through their daily interactions. Not all vulnerable and older people have the luxury of leaving their homes, and therefore these interactions and connections can prove vital to conquering loneliness and boosting the general morale of some of our most vulnerable members of society.
In Hampshire we had a special VIP visitor for “Connect Thursday” called Paula Hankin who works for the Hampshire and Isle of Wright fire and rescue service as a community safety officer. Her role involves supporting vulnerable members of the community to ensure they, alongside their property, are protected from fire risks with their free home fire safety visits. Paula enjoyed learning more about our meals on wheel service in Hampshire and learnt how we support people in the community with our hot lunchtime meals and wellbeing checks. She met some of our Community Team Members and saw how we delivered the meals in our vans across Hampshire.
PCSO Phoebe Taylor from Hertfordshire police came out shadowed a round from the Letchworth site. This gave her the opportunity to get out and meet more clients in the area she covers and the opportunity for our services to work together to ensure our clients feel safe and secure in their homes
In West Sussex we were visited by Ben Applin, the Rural Engagement Officer from West Sussex Fire Brigade, who paid a special visit to Michael and Audrey, two of our meals on wheels clients. Whilst there, he carried our a free Fire Safe and Well check, sharing tips on how to make their home even safer. If you want to know more about these checks head to https://tinyurl.com/34vk7jby to find out more.
Friday Friends
As meals on wheels week came to a close, we invited you to eat with other people. Whether it’s other people in your building, a family or friend, or even a lunch club. We want to encourage you to engage with your local community. It is a great way to combat loneliness, encourage eating and to have a great time with friends.
To find out more about our community activities including lunch clubs and 10-2 clubs, click here: https://hils-uk.org/community-activities/
