M – MOW
MOW or better known as Meals on Wheels….Today at 11.15 am, I drove to a friend’s home to pick her up as she helps me to deliver these meals. I then drove to our local Hospital to collect those meals.
There are 4 volunteers each day and 2 routes….We do route one and the other volunteers deliver to route two. It usually takes us about one to one and a half hours as by the time we collect the meal, drive to the recipients home deliver the meal and check to make sure that they are OK return back to the Hospital unload everything and pack it all away.
The people we deliver the meals too are either elderly, had recent surgery or have been ill or unable to drive.
The meals consist of three courses. The Main meal, Soup, and a Desert. They are cooked in the Hospital’s kitchen and served out into ‘Take Away Containers’ the main meal is placed into Hot Boxes ( Containers that are plugged into the electricity until we collect them)so that they stay hot. Another container holds the soup and another an Esky that holds the deserts.
The same meal does not apply to all the people as there may be someone who is allergic to particular food or is a Diabetic….can’t eat specific food eg vegetables meats or just do not like certain foods and so on. The instructions for the Volunteers are written in a book stating who has that particular meal plus written on the containers so that we can see that particular person’s meal amongst all the others that must be delivered. As we deliver to each client we tick off their name to show that it has been delivered.
If there is no response to our knocking on the door or we cannot deliver that meal to a client we contact the person in charge to let them know and they then follow up to make sure that the Client is OK.
Jo and I are rostered on twice a month…She is almost 84 years old but continues to do as much voluntary work as she can….sadly most of the volunteers around the town are in the 60 – to 80 age group. The younger folk just don’t want to do this work anymore but if it’s something to do with Sport then they don’t hesitate to become involved which means that most of these organisations will most probably close in the next 10 years or so.
Tags: Volunteering
