About the project
The COVID pandemic forced a great many changes in everyone's lives but, for Quesnel, something good that came from the global episode was the development of a meal preparation and delivery service for local shut-in seniors.
Several groups organized programs, notably the local churches, but the one we got brought into was that run by North Cariboo Seniors' Council, starting with a $2,000 Grant in July 2020 and then becoming a semi-regular hands-on opportunity to prepare the meals as well as pay for the groceries.
The Grant:
Founded in early 2020, North Cariboo Seniors’ Council was awarded a COVID-related grant of $10,000 from United Way to provide meals to vulnerable seniors impacted by COVID-19, but since the actual money wouldn't be with the Council for a few weeks, our club stepped up to sponsor the Meals For Seniors program in the interim, by way of $2,000 from our BC Gaming Community Grant (for which we acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia).
Including the freezer-quality containers, the program cost about $750 per meal per month, so our grant would comfortably cover July and August, by which time the United Way funding would be received. In addition, we provided $300 in gas cards, from club member donations, for the volunteer drivers - meals don't deliver themselves!
Our recently installed President for 2020-21, Diane Rogers, is pictured delivering the cards and our cheque to Brenda Gardiner, President of NCSC and local coordinator for Better At Home.
A year later, the program had demonstrated its value but the funding had ended. This piece in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer caught our attention:
Click on the image to open a new tab containing the full story
Once again, we stepped up. Due to pandemic measures, we were not able to host a Seniors Trip to Barkerville for the second year running, so we decided to reallocate part of the BC Gaming Grant funds designated to the Trip to the “Meals For Seniors” program. At our lunchtime meeting on 5th August 2021, President Bev Haluschak presented our grant cheque to NCSC Meals Coordinator Nicole Audet who took the opportunity to invite us to employ our "catering skills" to help prepare the meals (we didn't have the heart to tell her that we had no "catering skills"; not sure that would have made any difference anyway!).
Cooking Meals for Seniors:
Our first go was 16th November 2021 in the kitchen at St John's Community Hall, and, under the careful supervision of Nicole (who would later become a Club member), we duly washed, peeled, scraped, and sliced our way to preparing 200 containers of beef and sausage stew.
Since then, NCSC has got the program down to a science - they devise the month-to-month menu, they coordinate the grocery shopping, and then various local community groups, ourselves included, get to work.
Website: www.caribooseniorscouncil.org/