“We need $5 million-plus in funding now”: Meals on Wheels tells Government

The sixty-year-old Not-for-Profit is asking the Government for a $5 million increase in its base funding in the 2017 budget and another $300,000 to ensure they have the resources to meet future aged care reforms.

That’s an average of just 50 cents a meal.

But with recent aged care reforms and $1.2 billion in cuts to aged care funding announced in last year’s budget, the Australian Meals on Wheels Association’s National President Nelson Mathews says the service needs more certainty for the future.

Currently Meals on Wheels, which delivers over 10 million meals a year to 120,000, mostly elderly, clients, gets just a little funding through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP).

75,000 volunteers provide more than just a meal

Historically Meals on Wheels is a service where users have paid most of the costs – often up to 75 per cent.

It’s staffed by 75,000 volunteers, some working over 35 hours a week, who also check on clients’ wellbeing.

“On a day-to-day basis we often call ambulances or alert family members if we think something is wrong,” Mr Mathews says.

He shared a story from some MOW volunteers, who helped a clients who was drinking heavily by finding him a new mattress and some items for his house.

“He walked into the MOW offices the other day and told them he had not had a drink in three months. He explained that the key to recovery was not the household items, but … knowing that people cared.”

Growing up, my Dad delivered Meals on Wheels around the small country town we lived. We kids would pile into the car to ‘help’ as he dropped the meals off, always stopping for a cup of tea and a chat.

These services are not just about providing a meal – they are about keeping people safe and helping them connect with their community as they age.

With all of us getting older, that’s worth every cent.