09 February 2023
During the January Holidays, I was staying in Victor Harbor for a couple of weeks and wasn’t doing anything during the day, so I used my initiative and contacted Meals on Wheels to see if I could do some work with them for the period I was down there for. I completed 32 hours of voluntary work at Meals on Wheels over the course of eight days.
From this experience, I was able to communicate with lots of staff and build greater connections with people of different ages who I have never met before. Being able to work together as an organisation was useful as it helped me to grow as an individual when helping people that can’t cook for themselves. When serving meals which were going to be delivered to various locations in the south-eastern parts of SA, I was able to connect with all the members at Meals on Wheels and collaborate well with the various tasks which I completed.
I was fortunate enough to spend eight days volunteering at Meals on Wheels which I found to be a good and rewarding experience. I was asked to do lots of jobs like labelling of soup cup lids, dessert dish lids and hot meal lids. Labelling over 100 lids for each meal on average took a lot of effort as it would take a long time to complete. I was washing up pots and pans, serving meals into the cups and containers and helped pack them into the cooler bags. I did these jobs each day when I volunteered at Meals on Wheels. Having an interest in the type of work which was being offered was one way that I was able to achieve these various tasks. Being up early was something that I had to get used to with such an early start at 7am.
When helping out at Meals on Wheels, I was able to meet a variety of people of different ages and have conversations with them about things they like to do and what they did prior to Meals on Wheels. This was beneficial as it helped me to have a sense of belonging and that I was able to interact and grow with the staff working around me. Additionally, the staff were very inclusive to one another as well as being kind and caring which made me feel like I was part of the team for the time I was working there.
Henry Proudman (WDK)
Year 11