Not the Outside of the Asylum

Tokoroa Hospital has been freezing surplus patient meals for distribution through Meals on Wheels. Sounds great, right? But the health & safety brigade have shut it down: it would have to be frozen in a blast freezer instead of the hospital's standard freezer.

"Sometimes I have been picking up 10 meals a week. I take them out to Mangakino to some of my clients because there is no Meals on Wheels out there," she said.

"Often they may be living on their own, have dementia or disabilities so they are unable to cook their own meals and for those who can't get Meals on Wheels this is their lifesaver.

"They have everything in there a person needs. They are healthy, nutritional, tasty, and home cooked.

"I am very very saddened by the fact that this is going to stop as a lot of people rely on them."

She said the frozen meals were ideal for her clients as they could heat them up when she wasn't there.

"It is no good me taking a fresh meal from Meals on Wheels in Tokoroa because I would have to do it every day and at a specific time," she said.

"I have looked into the frozen meals at the local supermarkets but the cost is too great and the meals are not nutritionally satisfactory anyway.

"I also have clients with special nutritional needs and some of the supermarket meals don't cater for those either but these meals are made for hospital patients so they are perfect for my clients."

Better they go hungry I guess.