Headford News and Community Spotlight - Craving More Than Food

MEN'S HEALTH WEEK! Begins Monday, June 9th. Come on, guys, see if you can get yourselves looking like this in a week. It could happen.


COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

The First Meals on Wheels during WWII

If you’ve ever been out driving in the countryside around Headford on a weekday afternoon, you’ve probably passed John Cloonan in the Solas van delivering Meals on Wheels. Some of the people on his delivery route can no longer walk. One is blind, others are nearly deaf, and some just seem ‘lost.’ The one thing they all have in common is that they’re delighted when John arrives with a hot meal.

‘These dinners are mighty,’ Sally tells me. Her house is dark and she stays mostly in one room because she has difficulty walking. The dinner she’s talking about is simple fare – meat or fish, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas – but if you’re hungry and you can’t cook for yourself, it’s a welcome meal.

The Meals on Wheels concept originated in the United Kingdom during the Blitz, when many people lost their homes and therefore the ability to cook their own food. The Women's Volunteer Service for Civil Defence (WVS) provided food for these people. The name ‘Meals on Wheels’ derived from the WVS's related activity of bringing meals to servicemen. Sometimes old prams lined with straw were used to transport the meals which might have been covered with old felt hats to keep the food warm in transit. In Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Ireland, Meals on Wheels services began in the mid and late 1950s.

Today, in Headford and surrounding areas, Solas supplies the van and fuel for delivery free of charge, and for six Euros, Angler’s Rest provides the meal.

The Angler's Rest kitchen crew

On this particular Friday, the kitchen at Angler’s Rest is bustling. Niall cooks and Barbara sets up an assembly line of plates. Together, they heap steaming food into separate compartments on each plate, then seal the whole thing up tight to keep the food warm. They work with the speed of a well-oiled machine.

John Cloonan delivering meals

John Cloonan then takes the meals and rushes out the door with them in a sealed carrier, speeding away in the Solas van, into the wilds of the Connaught countryside. Normally, there would be a volunteer to help, but today John is on his own. This afternoon, he’s delivering hot meals to twenty-five different houses, which will require two separate trips to Anglers for food pick up and take a total of four hours.

As you might expect, there are a wide range of personalities taking advantage of the Meals on Wheels service.

One 94-year-old man on the programme used to have his meal delivered to his elderly neighbour’s house so they could eat together. But his neighbour passed away and now John might be the only person this elderly gentleman sees for days on end.

Then there are the demanding customers. One woman decreed that her meal must be delivered at precisely one o’clock. Not 12:55. Not 1:05, but 1:00 pm on the dot. Though this woman did not explain why, and John had to rearrange his entire route to meet her demand, he doesn’t feel cross with her. ‘She probably has medication to take at 1:00 pm and it needs to be taken with food,’ he says.

Some people, like 84-year-old Agnes, come outside to meet the van. It’s clear she enjoys the social lift this visit gives her. John brings her a bit of news from town, and she takes the opportunity to ask after a few people she knows.

Pauline and her care-giver, Phil, come to the door together to collect Pauline’s meal. ‘This [service] is the best thing ever,’ Pauline says. ‘I don’t have to shop or chop or anything.’

When you can no longer drive or even walk very well, shopping for food can be an overwhelming undertaking. More importantly, as John Middleton, Solas Co-ordinator puts it, ‘If it ever happens that other services are needed, we can ring them right away.’

He’s referring to the time a driver was delivering a meal to a man who didn’t answer the door. The driver looked through a window and saw the man lying, unconscious, on the floor. When he couldn’t be roused, the guards, and then an ambulance were called. Unfortunately, the man had passed away, but he might have been lying there for days if not for a visit from the Meals on Wheels driver. Another woman fell in her bathroom and couldn’t get up until the Meals on Wheels crew arrived.

The last stop on this Friday afternoon is down a long, winding back round. It’s a lonely old house, set out on its own and surrounded by vacant green fields. As the van pulls up, an elderly gentleman walks out to meet us. When I ask him what he thinks of the Meals on Wheels service, he smiles. ‘I love it! I love it!’