“AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY”
Volunteering with a local Social Enterprise
“There’s certainly some truth in the old saying”, confirmed Fiona McCaffrey Jones, Manager of the Community Services Programme Social Enterprise at the Blackwater Valley Learning Centre. “We take the quality of our food and the positive effect it has on our customers’ health very seriously” she continued. “We are proud of the quality of the food we produce and our ethos is to serve nutritious and freshly prepared meals to our customers young and old”.
“Our catering staff are fully trained in HCCAP, menu development and catering systems and between them they have over 40 years’ experience working in the hospitality sector”, Fiona continued. “We adhere to the HSE Healthy Eating guidelines for children and work closely with schools and the HSE Older Person’s Service”.
During the summer of 2021, local woman and recent Human Nutrition graduate, Caoimhe Maguire volunteered to help with the Community Services Programme’s meals on wheels delivery. “A chat with Caoimhe led to one of our most interesting volunteering projects. As an organisation we always strive to be the best and we relish every opportunity to improve what we do”, Fiona explained. It was decided that Caoimhe could put her professional qualifications to use by evaluating the meals on wheels menu to confirm that it met the nutritional needs of older people. Last year, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) published scientific based recommendations for older adults in Ireland. With Caoimhe’s help we used these detailed guidelines to adapt our current menu and bring you even tastier, healthier meals options.
“I was delighted to be able to volunteer with the Community Services Programme” Caoimhe confirmed. “I am passionate about food and healthy eating especially for older people. The Community Services Programme’s meals on wheels menu addresses all of the main issues in older adults’ diets in Ireland including too much salt and sugar, lack of protein and fibre, lack of healthy fats and too much unhealthy fats and lack of certain vitamins and minerals. The minor changes to the meals on wheels menu keep it delicious while also providing even more nutritious and healthy options”.
For further information about the Meals On Wheels Service contact
Fiona McCaffrey Jones on 047.87049 or email fiona@blackwaterlearningcentre.com
To find out more about volunteering please visit: https://volunteermonaghan.ie/