By Kate Lockyer
Crosby Park Meals on Wheels has just celebrated the fact that they have been delivering hot meals to those in need for 50 years now.
President Geena Luckin said one of the highlights of the celebration was to honour Helen McVay, who has been volunteering for Meals on Wheels for 42 years.
“That is an incredible number of years to be donating her time, and she comes in every week,” Ms Luckin said.
With about 80 volunteers and just six or seven staff members serving 105 clients, she said: “We are totally reliant on our volunteer workforce to do the meal deliveries.”
The celebration had around 60 people attending, including the Governor of Queensland Dr Jeannette Young, patron of Queensland Meals on Wheels.
Ms Luckin said it was exciting to have Governor Young make a speech about the importance of Meals on Wheels to help people to remain in their homes for as long as possible.
“Our delivery styles have changed a bit over the time I’ve been here, so clients have the ability to get a weekly delivery of frozen meals rather than having to be home every day,” Ms Luckin said.
Ms Luckin estimated that they make about 1000 meals a week, because in addition to hot meals, they make frozen meals and sell meals to the public.
Meals on Wheels delivers from the north side of Nundah down through to Fortitude Valley, New Farm and into the city and Spring Hill via six different delivery runs.
Ms Luckin has been volunteering at Meals on Wheels for 24 years, and has been President for 15 years, a formidable commitment to serving Brisbane’s vulnerable.
“People become like family. Because we’re all there very regularly, we take on a family attitude towards a lot of the clients, especially those who have been clients for a long time,” Ms Luckin said.
“When they get sick or something happens to them, we’re all quite affected by it, and some of the volunteers are absolutely amazing and they go back to see the clients in their own time and do things like replace lightbulbs or fix doors, or just take them out for a shopping trip.
“It means a lot to all of us, you don’t just take a meal and drop it off, we really have close contact with so many people.”
Helen McVay, Dr Jeanette Young and Geena Luckin