Frankston’s Meals on Wheels service provides vital support
Published on 17 June 2021
Frankston City’s Meals on Wheels service continues to play a vital role supporting vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Mayor Nathan Conroy said volunteers and staff from Frankston City Council have rallied to provide assistance to Meals on Wheels, particularly with many disadvantaged residents requiring increased support since March 2020.
“Council is proud to be one of the few remaining organisations in Victoria providing Meals on Wheels from its own kitchen facilities. Meals are cooked daily using fresh ingredients providing eligible residents with a hot meal Monday to Friday delivered to their doors. Frozen meals are delivered over weekends or public holidays or by client request,” Cr Conroy said.
Cr Conroy added that COVID-safe practices are applied at all times including physical distancing measures to promote the safety and wellbeing of both the community and delivery drivers.
“Contactless delivery also ensures safe delivery while still maintaining direct verbal contact with residents to check on their wellbeing. A smile, a quick chat from a safe distance, along with a hot, freshly cooked meal assures many of our residents that Frankston City Council really cares.
“The service provides not only food, but important community connection as delivery drivers (volunteers and redeployed staff) can be the only point of contact for disadvantaged residents. Recipients appreciate that we are still providing meals to the door regardless of level of lockdown,” Cr Conroy said.
South Ward Cr Brad Hill said the Meals on Wheels service is currently delivering an average of 5,500 meals per month including approximately 1500 per month to key charity Community Support Frankston (CSF) for distribution.
“The service is incredibly important and that’s why redeployed Council staff have filled any vacant volunteer shifts to ensure services continue without any impact to the recipients.
Our clients still get freshly cooked hot meals Monday to Friday regardless of what level of lockdown we are in (public holidays excepted),” Cr Hill said.
Cr Hill added: “The team processes requests for meals quickly and efficiently with a very short turnaround time to have meals delivered to homes. This ensures ongoing high quality, nutritional meals are supplied.
“The team work closely with CSF to provide meals to residents presenting each day for support.”
Cr Hill praised the dedication of volunteers, particularly those who took on extra ‘shifts’ to fill in for some older volunteers who were in the high risk category and had to ‘stand down’ due to the pandemic.
“Redeployed staff have enjoyed the experience to make a difference to the community in delivering meals,” Cr Hill said.
For more information about the Meals on Wheels service, please visit https://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/Community-Support