Tasmanian branch of meals on wheels has to find a new home

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A busy branch of community meal delivery service meals on wheels is facing an uncertain future. The service delivers more than 150 meals across Hobart's eastern shore every day but has to vacate its premises by the end of the year. It says it's not giving up... But all efforts so far to find a new home have been unsuccessful.

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00:00Every fortnight, Lynne loads up her car to deliver meals across Hobart's eastern shore.

00:11It's really nice to see them every week and catch up and just check in on them.

00:15The ladies bring it and you get a smile and a how are you Mrs Inman, you know.

00:20And when you cook at home there's always something goes wrong.

00:27The Meals on Wheels branch delivers roughly 170 meals every day.

00:32But it has to move out of its rental premises by the end of the year to make way for affordable housing.

00:38We've reached out to politicians, we've reached out to other areas, other community groups,

00:45but we really are getting knocked back or prices that are just way outside of our budget.

00:52The team fears moving further away will make it too hard for a number of volunteers to continue.

00:58With the closest branch around 20km away.

01:01We have 11 delivery runs that come out of these premises every single day.

01:05So to not have volunteers for those areas would be catastrophic.

01:11The state's peak body for volunteers knows how hard it can be to find people able to help.

01:16We have had a decline in formal volunteers and they are often in those spaces that are delivering critical supports to our communities.

01:25With the state budget set to be handed down in Hobart tomorrow,

01:28Volunteering Tasmania says it will be watching closely to see what support is included for the sector now and into the future.

01:35Meanwhile, here on the eastern shore, it's a nervous race against the clock to find a new home.

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