The Village Chef – previously known as Meals on Wheels – is celebrating 70 years of bringing food to the elderly. For many socially isolated older people, it is about more than a meal.
At 92, Leon Smith keeps very active every day, getting out and about of his Frenchs Forest home. There’s the men’s shed he visits once a week, learning to cook with Men’s Kitchen, and his wood work out the back in his shed. But when it comes to cooking dinner, Leon says he just doesn’t have ‘all of the zing and the zoom’ from years past. “At the end of the day, when you’re tired, preparing a meal for just yourself is a pain in the neck. So it’s easy to put one in the microwave and sit down and watch the news and have dinner the easy way.”
Leon’s meals are delivered once a fortnight by a volunteer from The Village Chef – and prepared daily by a qualified chef in their Turramurra kitchen.
This year, The Village Chef turns 70, and marked the occasion with a national Meals on Wheels day on 30 August.
General Manager Alex Kane says that The Village Chef’s biggest point of difference is its volunteers. “They not only deliver meals, but do so with a smile and often stay for a chat and informal check-in,” he tells North Shore Living. “They also often attend to small chores that older citizens can have trouble with.”
So it is not unusual to see the volunteers collecting the mail and putting out the bins – anything to help our senior citizens get through the day a bit easier.
Leon says the volunteer who delivers his meals always knows to check in his workshop if the garage door is open. They will have a look at his latest creation, and it often becomes a good conversation starter. For Leon, who lost his wife Antonia 8 years ago, the visit by the ‘pleasant’ volunteers is also a way to stave off loneliness.
The former company director of a taxi company says the dinner menu is ‘gigantic,’ with options for desserts and soups as well. He prefers to get the smaller-sized ‘petite’ meals: “ I try and keep up with the battle of trying to keep my weight down”. Roast beef, spaghetti Bolognese, apricot chicken and vegetable curry are just some of the selections available. Over 600 meals are delivered to the Northern Beaches each week by 60 volunteers. Meals are prepared in line with the Meals on Wheels national meal guidelines to provide optimal nutrition to seniors, and have been given an A-rating by the NSW Food Authority.
For details: villagechef.com.au.
