Safe Food Handling For Adults 60 + 

Safe Food Handling For People with Weakened Immune Systems

Food Safety Tips For Handling Leftovers

Summer Food Safety Tips

Are you ready to take volunteering with Meals on Wheels for a test drive? Fill out the following application form and then email the completed form to volunteer@mealswinnipeg.com (you’ll have to scan the form back in to your computer) or fax it to 204-956-7722.

Click here to download our application form (in PDF format)

If these options are not right for you, you can still become a volunteer. Call 204-956-7711 for more information.

Food for Thought…

Sheri Brandt is the employee at the RDF who works closest with Meals on Wheels’ office staff to get our clients the nutritious meals they need. With over 11 years of experience, she is a guru of menu modifications, and can almost always find a variety of food to serve clients with the most restrictive diets.

Over the years, Sheri has seen a lot of changes to the diet requests of Meals on Wheels clients. She notes that now, clients have more complicated requests than before; many require low-sodium meals, diabetic meals, gluten-free meals, or meals suitable for people with kidney disease.

Sheri works hard to ensure that clients are satisfied with the meals that they receive, which is important, as some clients do not eat anything but what Meals on Wheels delivers. For clients with many food likes and dislikes she will often manually select what food they are to be sent, a time consuming but worthwhile task for her. She also logs clients’ complaints and concerns, ensuring continuous quality improvement.

Constantly Improving…

Sheri and a team of the WRHA’s Nutrition and Food Services dietitians are constantly updating and revising the menus, adding a variety of healthy food for our clients to receive. Each menu item is analyzed thoroughly before becoming a part of a meal, making sure it has an adequate amount of the nutrients that clients need to stay healthy. They have also worked hard to keep the meals cost-effective, helping us to keep the program accessible to as many clients as possible.

The Meals on Wheels room at the RDF is a remarkable mix of teamwork and technology. All food preparation and handling at the RDF follows strict health guidelines. A belt line is used by diet aides to efficiently put the meals together according to each client’s allergies, food requirements and diet preferences. The filled trays are sealed and labeled before being shipped to the hospitals to be distributed. There, the meals are heated using specialized air convection technology and promptly placed into thermal containers, so our volunteers can deliver them hot to clients’ homes.

Not Just Hot Meals…

In addition to entrees, Meals on Wheels also offers supper bags; containing two sandwiches, milk or juice, and a small dessert. There is also a cold plate option, which is like a build-your-own-meal package; containing buns, meat or meat alternatives, condiments, milk or juice, and a small dessert. To prepare these, the RDF has a deli slicer, which is used to cut meats for sandwiches, and a large refrigerator to house them after being prepared.

The RDF also has created frozen meal menus, each accommodating different diet needs or textures. This allows our clients to choose which meals they want to receive from a list, and have those meals delivered in bulk so that they can eat a nutritious meal when it suits them. While many clients enjoy the daily deliveries of our volunteers, the frozen meal program gives clients more freedom; they only have to be home for one delivery every week or two.

Without the help of the RDF, the hard work of Sheri and other dedicated staff, and the support of its management, Meals on Wheels would not be able to help as many clients as we do today. We are incredibly thankful for the long-standing partnership that we have with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and so are our clients.

For more information on the WRHA, and the work that they are doing to keep people in the Winnipegregion healthy, please visit their website at www.wrha.mb.ca.

Information on registering a client with or becoming a volunteer for Meals on Wheels can be found at www.mealswinnipeg.com, or by calling 956-7711.

For more information, please click here.

To view the full article please visit The WRHA’s Website

This is making it difficult to commit to anything.  I had contemplated quitting Meals on Wheels volunteering. This was a tough decision for me because I really like volunteering. It’s one of the things I look forward to every day.

My dad received meals for many a year when he was taking care of mom. When I deliver I feel closer to my dad who has passed away.  In speaking to the volunteer coordinators they made it clear that they wanted me to continue driving and will do all they can to make sure I am backed up if I am unable to deliver meals that day.

This they have done.  I thank them from my heart.  Knowing they are there to help makes it easier throughout the drives.  It is because of them I am able to meet the other volunteers at the loading zones and also meet the clients every day.  I appreciate this.

Thank you and may God bless.

Submitted by Keith

For nearly 2 years now the family delivers meals together every other Sunday over the lunch hour, and they don’t intend to stop any time soon.  “We’re attached to the people on our route now.  We didn’t expect that.” says mom Tina.

They didn’t expect Mrs. P to fall in love with their daughter, or Mrs. M to give her chips once in a while, or to discover that Mr. K had turned vegetarian just like they did and now they exchange recipes!  What started out as delivering a hot meal to a stranger in need has turned into delivering dinner to a friend.

Friendly Delivery

All around the city Meals on Wheels volunteers are delivering more than nutritious food, they are reminding their neighbors that someone cares.  And for seniors who don’t get out much there is something extra special about a visit from a child.  Trianna knows this all too well.  She has made some new friends and she knows that they are waiting for her on Sundays.

Margaret finds comfort in the daily meal delivery from a friendly Meals on Wheels volunteer and only wishes she had more visitors.

Still Getting Out
She shakes her head.  “I thank God every day that I can still get out.”  And she means it.  She really doesn’t know what she’ll do if her arthritis gets too bad.  She’s already had one fall that gave her a scare.

Margaret doesn’t drive but walks down the street every evening to the local coffee shop.  She chats with whoever happens to be around.  Sometimes one of the regulars will give her a ride home.  She misses Brad, a young man that used to work there and also went to her church.  He always asked her “How you doin’ Margaret?” and she’d reply “I’m livin’.”   She hasn’t seen him for a while and wonders what happened to him.

Margaret really just wants some company.  She wants someone to talk to.  Like so many Meals on Wheels recipients, Margaret can’t get used to living alone.

Not So Alone
To many isolated seniors a daily visit from a Meals on Wheels volunteer can make all the difference.  Volunteers arrive with a hot meal and a few kind words.  More importantly they are a person at the door able and willing to bring help if a client may be sick or has fallen.   Meals on Wheels volunteers bring the comfort of knowing they are not alone.

Even a Six Year Old can do it!

Grandma Janis explains:

“Isabella was so excited and kept asking when we could do it again. She just loved it!  I think the clients enjoyed it just as much!  After the first time she helped us they kept asking when she was coming again.

I think it made a lot of them happy to see a little one that maybe reminded them of their own grandkids.  Or maybe it was just seeing a little one that brightened their day for them.  Either way she was a big success.  Some of them gave her cookies, candies or just a little pat on the head and had a great big smile on their faces.  They seemed disappointed if she wasn’t with us.”

As a church community St. Andrew’s United has committed to staffing one Meals on Wheels route each week day. That means 5 volunteer drivers and 5 volunteer servers are needed each week to deliver meals. For many years now Ardelia has taken on the job of coordinating the volunteer schedule for their church, as well as delivering meals with her husband Bruce.

Why Bruce and Ardelia Volunteer:

“Seeing these clients on a weekly basis, we have come to identify their joys and sorrows, to know their routines. And to also recognize when they are in distress.  When someone is no longer on our route, we wonder what has happened to them. They have become a part of our lives.

For many, we are the only people they see during the day. Bringing the food to them is only part of what we do. Just to have a moment of conversation (even if it is commenting on the weather) brightens their day – as it does ours.“

One of Many:

Bruce, Ardelia and the St. Andrew’s team are just one of many local churches, community groups, and schools who are partnering with Meals on Wheels to help us continue to feed those in our community who need it most.