Adelaide Venue Management (AVM) – operators of the Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide Entertainment Centre and Coopers Stadium – will repurpose their venues and make use of their commercial kitchens to make meals for organisations including Meals on Wheels SA, as demand for their services soars during the Covid-19 crisis.
All meals will be prepared by AVM’s dedicated kitchen teams and made in accordance with current vulnerable persons guidelines, ensuring the food is nutritious and healthy. The organisation’s goodwill will also help to keep about 60 people in jobs that may otherwise be on Jobseeker Centrelink payments.
Next, Foodbank SA will use their refrigerated vehicles to collect meals from AVM and transport to them to Meals on Wheels SA’s main distribution points.
“We have a responsibility to support the South Australian community and make the best use of our considerable resources,” said AVM’s CEO Anthony Kirchner.
“We are reaching out to various companies and community groups where we have identified a possible need to see if we can lend them a hand in these challenging times.
“We’ll transition back to our regular business activities when the appropriate time comes, but for now we’re focused on repurposing our venues to support the community and look after the wellbeing of our employees,” Kirchner said.
From this month, AVM will provide up to 18,000 three-course meals each week to help Meals on Wheels SA bridge their supply gap – and is urging other community organisations to contact them if they need meal preparation support.
Meals on Wheels SA’s CEO Sharyn Broer said the new partnership strengthens the existing food supply chain so local communities can continue to be supported at this challenging time.
“In the past two weeks we’ve seen a 250 per cent increase in new customer registrations and South Australians are registering every day as the full impacts of Covid-19 take hold. This partnership also allows us to deliver more frozen meals, and fewer hot meals, to reduce the frequency of home visits in the interests of public health and safety,” noted Broer.
Foodbank SA’s CEO Greg Pattinson added: “The Foodbank SA team we will be collecting the pre-prepared meals from AVM and delivering to Meals on Wheels distribution points across the state. Following our call out, some of our amazing Foodbank chef’s and ambassadors have offered their support to Meals on Wheels during this time.”
“The Meals on Wheels volunteers will then in turn support Foodbank SA to distribute thousands of Foodbank food hampers to families in need each week.
“If we all work together we will be able to ensure no vulnerable South Australian goes without during this unprecedented time.”
