A major fundraising event in aid of Tipperary Meals on Wheels took place recently at the Abbey CBS Astro Turf pitch. The West Tipperary Social Hurling Tournament involved 14 social hurling teams with 21 matches played throughout the day. The attendance was treated to 5 hours of hurling along with a wall ball competition for the children. The event was organised to raise funds to help replace the kitchen floor in the Tipperary Community Services Centre. This project will cost in the region of €8,000 and the proceeds from the social hurling event will go towards the project. Tipperary Town Meals on Wheels service operates from Tipperary Community Services Centre and currently delivers an average of 120 meals per day to the Tipperary Town and 10km catchment area. The Meals on Wheels service is available to everyone who wishes to avail of the service. They deliver to the elderly, but also to anyone who is living alone, anyone recovering at home from illness or surgery, or anyone who does not have the resources to cook a daily hot meal and would just like a daily hot meal delivered. The service comes under Section 39 funding as they provide a service for the HSE. This funding is vital but only covers about 10% of the overall Meals on Wheels costs. The charge for a Meals on Wheels daily delivery of soup, dinner and dessert is only €5 per person. This challenges the service to source raw materials at the best possible price while equally maintaining a high quality of homemade food and service. The service is indebted to the Food Cloud programme for some of those raw materials weekly. The service is supported by 16 CE scheme staff and they have three full time staff and one full time volunteer. Fundraising and donations play a huge part in keeping the service functioning, especially the costs of keeping the commercial kitchen up to the highest standards and regulations required. To help with some of the costs they operate a community café which serves tea, coffee, homemade scones and buns. The café
PICTURES: Social hurlers cook up fundraiser in aid of Tipperary Meals on Wheels
