about Meals on Wheels
What Meals on Wheels does in your community
Almost every day, more than 20,000 people throughout New South Wales are helped by about 240 local Meals on Wheels/Food Service organisations. At last count, just over 35,000 volunteers were regularly giving their time and skills to this essential community service.
Clients receive a nutritious and tasty meal, delivered by volunteers who have time for a friendly chat. Services work to meet clients’ individual needs, across differences in culture, dietary need, religion, medical condition, language, physical ability and personal taste. Increasingly, Meals on Wheels services offer:
- Delivery of frozen and cook-chilled food, in place of hot, to allow choice of when to eat the meal.
- Expansion of the range of food products taken into the home to include breakfast and snack items, and finger food menus for clients with reduced mobility or appetite.
- Special menus and culturally appropriate delivery arrangements for particular community groups, especially centre-based meal programmes to bring together clients of a particular ethnic background.
- Regular opportunities for clients to come together for a meal at a central location, sometimes including social activities such as discussion groups, readings, card games or physical exercises.
- Various forms of assistance with food shopping, for clients who want to prepare their own meals, and the giving of lessons in how to prepare easy, delicious meals for one.
As well as helping meet clients’ nutritional needs, Meals on Wheels provides regular social contact and community involvement to clients and volunteers alike. It is at the very heart of what a local community means.
Who runs Meals on Wheels
Most Meals on Wheels and Food Service organisations in NSW are run by local Management Committees, made up of volunteers from the community. The Committees receive and control funding to employ one or more people to manage and coordinate the daily operations of the service.
In this way, every Meals on Wheels organisation remains responsive to specific local needs. In some areas, the Area Health Service, the local Council or the Home Care Service of NSW administers Meals on Wheels and Food Service organisations.
Almost all Meals on Wheels organisations receive funding from the Home and Community Care (HACC) programme to run their services. The HACC programme is a cost shared programme between the Commonwealth and State governments. The Department of Ageing, Disability And Home Care (DADHC) administers the HACC programme in NSW.
For details, click here to see the HACC page on the Commonwealth Government website.
The NSW Meals on Wheels Association is the peak body, providing resources, support, advocacy, information, advice and training to its member Food Service organisations. Local organisations pay a membership fee to belong to the Association: it is not a ‘head office’!
History and media information
As the peak body for the individual Meals on Wheels services around the state, the Association can provide background information and contacts for people interested in learning more about how Meals on Wheels operates.
Our CEO is usually happy to provide interviews, and we can put you in touch with individual service managers, volunteers and clients as well.
Some basic information is available below, but please contact the NSW MOWA office if you would like to know more.