Golden Circle Senior Resource Centre staff member Fran McKeown preparing meals to be frozen and delivered to local seniors in need. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

Supporting Seniors

Golden Circle serves over 10,000 frozen meals during pandemic

Oct 6, 2020 | 2:44 PM

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, officials with the Golden Circle in Red Deer say it hasn’t stopped their frozen meal program from being a big success this year.

Between March 19 and Sept. 30, over 10,000 frozen meals have been made for local seniors during the pandemic.

“The frozen meal program has been part of our basket of services that we’ve provided the community for a number of years now,” says Monica Morrison, Executive Director at the Golden Circle Senior Resource Centre. “But during COVID, we noticed a huge uptake on it because of people not wanting to go to the grocery store and finding it a little more challenging getting groceries.”

Morrison says their program supports seniors not only in the city, but also Red Deer County, Lacombe and other outlying communities.

“Last week we did over 500 meals in one week,” she exclaims. “In 2019, we made 8,500 meals and in these few short months we’ve done 10,000 meals already.”

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Morrison says food for the meals is cooked by staff on-site, then frozen, plated and packaged before being delivered by volunteers.

“There is a variety of foods and we did add a few new menu choices which include roast beef and a couple of pasta dishes,” explains Morrison. “We’ve also added some soups for the winter.”

Morrison estimates roughly 200 area-seniors benefit from their frozen meal program. However, she notes that the program’s success wouldn’t be possible without the support of local agencies such as the TD Bank, FCSS Red Deer & District, FCSSAA, United Way Central Alberta, INEOS, and Red Deer Twilight Homes Foundation.

“When people order, they’re ordering for a week or two at a time, while some are ordering for a month at a time, especially if they’re in the outlying areas,” adds Morrison. “Frozen meal programs are usually part of a meals-on-wheels program but Red Deer Meals-On-Wheels doesn’t have a frozen meal program, so we developed one. The kitchen staff itself is only two people, then we have five volunteers that are delivering the meals.”

Morrison says she’s proud of what their staff and volunteers have been able to accomplish with their frozen meal program.

“I take my hat off to the staff, they are really working hard trying to support the community during COVID-19,” says Morrison. “My staff is also really busy because our centre is closed. We’ve developed virtual programs as well, so that’s a lot of challenge to making sure that everybody gets the Zoom connection, the invites and getting connected to the various virtual programs.”

Morrison says those who receive the frozen meals are certainly grateful for the help they receive.

“It also takes the pressure of off family members that are providing meals to their parents,” adds Morrison. “So if we didn’t have it, it would be interesting to see how some families would manage providing food for their parents. When you’re in a sandwich generation, it becomes very challenging.”

For more information on the frozen meal program at the Golden Circle Senior Resource Centre or any other programs and services they provide, visit www.goldencircle.ca.