Blue Mountains Food Services (BMFS) is a non-profit, charitable organization that provides a range of programs and services to residents of the Blue Mountains.
These include aged care and disability services, volunteer opportunities, and Ben’s Café in Lawson (formerly called Ben Roberts Café), which supports people with disabilities.
To support these services, BMFS uses the help of approximately 100 volunteers in various ways.
BMFS, the local Meals on Wheels provider, is a proud member of the NSW Meals on Wheels Association and a registered NDIS provider.
The organization has over 20 years of experience in the community, disability and hospitality sectors.
“Our services focus on meeting the nutritional needs of our clients while addressing the issue of social isolation by engaging them in social activity and inclusion,” said Managing Director Martin Gardiner.
Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, BMFS has been able to adapt its services to minimize risk to staff and volunteers while maintaining service delivery to clients.
Mr. Gardiner said that “our volunteers are an essential part of our safe service delivery” and are currently involved in the following activities:
- Delivery of frozen meals, plus delivery of a range of freshly prepared meals and snacks from Ben’s Café, to over 300 Lapstone customers in Mount Victoria. These volunteers are integral to maintaining a social connection as well as performing a simple wellness check on all home delivery customers.
- Assist staff in packaging frozen meals for delivery.
- Assist in community restaurants, including food preparation, meal service and cleaning. These restaurants provide customers over the age of 65 with freshly cooked meals at low cost in a social setting.
- Support customers by taking them shopping or sometimes just having a coffee and a chat.
- Assisting NDIS participants in the Cook + Connect group cooking programs, as well as the cooking group for seniors over 65.
- Office support by answering phone calls, processing customer orders and sometimes also picking up fruit for customers.
“It’s pretty simple,” Mr. Gardiner said. “We could not provide the services we offer with the money we receive from the government or operate our programs without the support of volunteers.
“On average, our volunteers help us with over 700 hours of support each month.”
He encouraged anyone with spare time to consider volunteering with Blue Mountains Food Services.
To find out more about the roles available, you can phone 4759 2811 or visit their website at www.bmfs.org.au.
