CEO wins NSW Meals on Wheels award

Sydney’s COA has won an Innovation Award from NSW Meals on Wheels for its COA Fresh initiative.

‘COA Fresh’ went from an idea to action within two weeks of the first lockdown in 2020, when COVID lockdowns saw frail aged people unable and unwilling to attend shopping centres.

After an initial generous donation from Harris Farm Markets, others donated as well.  Patrick’s of Bellevue Hill, Oz Harvest, Good 360, and cash donations for COA staff to purchase goods from markets, allowed them to quickly start delivering a FREE bag of basic fruit and vegetables plus other household items such as toothbrushes, disinfectants, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and soap.

The initiative was so successful, that more volunteers were soon needed, so community organisations and synagogues put the word out for them, and they very quickly got the volunteers required. Older volunteers are engaged in packing bags and boxes to be delivered out, and younger volunteers do the deliveries. A new volunteer coordinator was engaged to manage the sheer quantity of volunteers and deliveries going out each week.

A spokeperson for NSW Meals on Wheels said: “We recently had the privilege of recognising outstanding achievements at a local level, within the Meals on Wheels NSW community. We were inundated with high-quality entries reinforcing that Meals on Wheels is ‘more than just a meal’.”