Springtime again!
Our Summer Menu will start in a few week’s time which means once again we will be offering our salads on Tuesdays and Thursdays in addition to the other new meal choices. We hope you enjoy the change in meal options and hope you might try one of the delicious salads as a refreshing food option for a hot summers’ day.
Welcome to another chilly New England winter. My goodness it has been a hectic few months here – I hope this newsletter can cover all the activities that have been happening for us all!
Firstly, thank you so much to everyone for adjusting our delivery routine to allow for social distancing and ‘no-contact’ deliveries. We are so lucky that we have been able to continue our service without any hiccups throughout autumn. We ask that our volunteers continue to please use hand sanitiser.
Secondly, a big WELCOME to all of our new volunteers and also to a large number of new and returning clients who are taking advantage of our service to help maintain healthy eating at home. (more…)
Greetings all! I hope you are all enjoying the respite from the heat and that whatever is left of your gardens has come back to life with recent moisture.
There has been much discussion in the media about how charities use donations. As a registered charity we have to abide by the federal laws governing how we use any donations to our organisation. Just to clarify, any charity that receives money for a specific purpose/project/task/activity MUST use that money for that task or activity (which includes the administration of that task or activity). Charities cannot re-deploy those funds for other purposes. In this way donors can be sure that their funds are being used for the purpose it was intended. (more…)
Greetings all.
As we look ahead to another festive season, it’s a good excuse to have a bit of light relief from the only thing that is more relentless than the weather – everyone TALKING about the weather!
As I finish this newsletter Armidale is surrounded by fire devastation and I do hope people are managing with the increasing levels of anxiety, heat and smoke haze. I would ask that everyone remembers to stay well hydrated & to check in with your friends and neighbours regularly – as a community we can all work together to stay safe this summer.
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From the Manager’s Desk
Spring Time again – lets keep all our fingers and toes crossed for that elusive rain we are all waiting for.
In a few weeks we will be looking ahead to our summer menu where we add salads to a few lighter meal options for those hot summer days.
There has been some recent media discussion concerning the security and amount of funding for MOW organisations. This is an ongoing issue for a number of service organisations because in 2018 our CHSP funding contracts were extended for 2 years without a full review. This means there are organisations trying to function in 2019-20 with the amount of funding originally allocated in 2014-15. There is some indexation applied however it is difficult for planning for the future when you are locked into a fixed funding allocation.
We are very fortunate to be in a sound financial position at present so I hope these reports have not caused any concern for you. (more…)
In May, the Volunteers of Armidale Uralla Meals on Wheels were acknowledged with the Alwyn Jones Community Service Award for 2019.
Manager Kerryn Williams was delighted to receive the award from State Member for Northern Tablelands, Adam Marshall at a ceremony held at Armidale Regional Council Chambers.
Ms Williams said “We consistently have positive feedback from our clients about the wonderful people delivering our meals every day so it is nice to have some recognition of this and our long history of community service.” (more…)
Happy Autumn everyone!
As we enjoy the changing seasons and colours of our wonderful New England, we are starting to experience colder days (and nights) and warmer food! We have now changed to our winter menu which will see us exchange the salads for your favourite winter tummy warmers.
We have just been given the good news that our current federal funding contract will be extended from July 2020 through to June 2022 which allows us to build on our stability and focus on the future without immediate concern for our funding security. This is a great relief.
In February we were visited by Assessors from the Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission who reviewed our operations from top to bottom. Thank you for those volunteers and clients who spoke to the assessors and provided your personal opinions about our service.
There is currently a set of 18 Aged Care Standards that we need to meet and it was determined that we are meeting every one of these standards which is an excellent achievement by all the team here, the committee and our volunteers – THANK YOU!
Happy 2019 to All!
We hope you have all enjoyed a festive season with lots of fellowship, food and family. We all enjoyed just a few days off and are back into full swing for 2019.
We hosted several wonderful Christmas functions in December for local com-munity groups including Red Cross, Australian National Seniors (Armidale Branch); Rotary Central, U3A Singalong Group and Mah Jong Players who are shown here enjoy-ing their dessert.
We anticipate a big year ahead! (more…)
It’s that time of the year ago folks – as we enjoy the change in seasons, we will shortly be making changes to our menu to offer salads several times each week and some lighter, more ‘summery’ meal options.
2018 AGM – All our Volunteers are invited to attend and participate in the 2018 Annual General Meeting which is to be held with an after-noon tea at 2.30pm on Monday 29th October.
Any of our clients who might be interested are also welcome. (more…)
Greetings all,
Looking back at the last financial year I am glad to be able to reflect on the number of projects we have completed such as the addition of the partition wall between the dining room and administration areas; painting through-out the kitchen and storage area; the installation of solar panels and also our new walk-in freezer. These are mostly projects that we received grants to complete in the past and we were extremely keen to demon-strate that we were committed to their undertaking. It’s a great relief to have all the projects completed and as mentioned in this, and previous, newsletters the additional funding received through Armidale Central Ro-tary has assisted us greatly to finish these projects properly.
All this has been taking place while we maintain the service of between 2,500 and 3,000 meals each month. We always welcome feedback about the meal service so please call the office if you have any issues to discuss.
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