Lorraine Godkin looks forward to Eating With Friends, shown here with Janet Tanner and Elaine Brown enjoying ’Christmas in July’ celebrations.
OLDER people living alone can easily become socially isolated from their community, especially when they have no one to share their meals with.
The Yarra Ranges Council provide a Meals on Wheels service to ensure residents who cannot cook are able to have pre-prepared, nutritious meals delivered to their door with the help of volunteers.
But a new venture, Eating With Friends, being run by the Yarra Ranges Council will enable residents to “meet, greet and eat” with other residents in the community in a homely, social setting.
Millgrove resident Lorraine Godkin has been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for more than 20 years, and was the first to put her hand up to volunteer with this new venture.
“A lot of these people are so lonely – sometimes you’re the only person they’ll see each week,” she said.
“They want to sit and have a conversation, and bringing them all together will enable that.”
Yarra Ranges Shire social support co-ordinator Kerrie Hunter said non-profit groups in Tasmania began running the program in 2000 with great success.
She said it grew out of concerns from Meals on Wheels volunteers that so many older people were eating alone.
Ms Hunter said residents would be picked up from their homes and taken to the Yarra Burns Centre in Yarra Junction to enjoy a meal in each other’s company.
“It’s about being allowed to follow through with these friendships,” she said.
“Everyone needs to be involved in breaking the barriers, making it a home environment for people to feel relaxed, comfortable and eat together.”
Ms Hunter said they have the capacity to feed 50 to 100 people a week, but need volunteer support to run the program effectively.
“We’d like to see the support eventually help get these residents out to other places in the community so it’s not the ‘same old’ eating place,” she said.
“We’ve got the bookings, we’ve got the cars, and we just need the volunteers to get these people out of social isolation.”
The service will be funded jointly by the Yarra Ranges Council and the Victorian Government Home and Community Care program.
