KEEPING THE MEALS ON WHEELS TURNING

From left: Angela Christieson, Bob Saunders and Peter Monk. Angela is the early cook and Peter is one of the drivers and also sorts the meals into runs.

Food Service Manager Bob Saunders lost most of the Meals on Wheels delivery volunteers to lockdown.

Many of the drivers were older people advised to stay home, so Bob was left wondering how he was going to deliver more than 70 meals a day to people who rely on the service.

“I was sitting with my head in my hands when Clinical Governance Support Manager Peter Twamley asked if his team could help,” Bob says.

“They were working from home and delivered the meals on their lunchbreaks, really stepping up to the job.”

Bob co-ordinates eight different runs with 5-15 meals per run each day. During lockdown an additional 246 meals were delivered each day to homeless people and community mental health service clients.

Bob says the way that Peter’s team jumped on board was a humbling experience.

“Over this time I have met so many staff that work and support the hospital that I didn’t know existed. I guess at the end of the day we are just doing our job so it felt kind of weird to be acknowledged and supported like this.”

Bob says his team coped very well in the kitchen with the new workplace requirements.

“It was all a bit daunting at the start but we are pretty good with the PPE and handwashing, although the physical distancing was a bit tricky,” he says. “We moved the work benches around, separated the tray lines and it’s ‘one in and one out’ in the office.”

Bob was also happy to be able to keep the hospital cafés open during lockdown. “Some days were pretty quiet, but it gave the staff somewhere to go and the café team also made lots of ready meals for staff to take home.”