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 engaging with clients to hear first-hand experience of daily life delivering and receiving meals on wheels.
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
Mayor of Hertford – Councillor Rachel Carter also 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!
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.
We had a special VIP visitor for “Connect Thursday” for 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 and their property is 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 welfare checks. She met some of our Community team members and saw how we delivered the meals in our vans across Hampshire.
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/
