Second servings of Meals on Wheels
TIREE Meals on Wheels has been saved – for at least the next six months.
Island care organisation Cùram Thiriodh, which already runs a lunch club, a carers’ service and exercise classes, has come to the rescue.
Cùram Thiriodh began negotiations with Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership to keep the service going after the Royal Voluntary Service announced it was withdrawing it nationally. The last of the RVS-run Meals on Wheels were served on Tiree and Oban on Friday March 23. But an agreement to run it as a six-month pilot project on Tiree means all the paperwork and backroom organisation will be done on the island with the clients, the meals, the prices and the volunteers staying the same.
Meals are cooked by catering staff at a residential home in Scarinish and a pool of 10 volunteers drive the 40-mile round-route to deliver them.
The service has been running on Tiree for 50 years and still has eight clients relying on it, said Cùram chairman Dr John Holliday.
‘The idea of Meals on Wheels has become unfashionable in recent years, but we believe in it and it works on Tiree.
‘We are lucky on the island to have a brilliant combination of good food, a care service that really knows its clients and a willing rota of volunteers. We have agreed a six-month trial to see how things go, as we will have to raise extra money to cover expenses,’ he said.
Bill Welstead, a Cùram director, said: ‘Island life depends on the strength of its community.
‘With dedicated volunteers delivering hot meals to appreciative people into some of the remotest townships of Tiree, the continuance of the Meals on Wheels service was well worth fighting for.’
And volunteer driver Rosemary Omand told The Oban Times: ‘This is great news. Thanks are due to the directors of Cùram for all their work in getting this under way.’
A spokesperson for the health and social care partnership said: ‘This is an excellent example of how we want to work with third sector agencies and community resilience in the future. We wish them every success in their new venture.’