By Mike Hinds
Chinese anyone?
Meals on Wheels, which has delivered food primarily to seniors in Centretown since 1968, is considering a program that would have Chinese food delivered to the service’s Chinese clientele by someone fluent in their native tongue.
“Sometimes we don’t have any (Chinese customers),” says Janet Snyder, executive director of Meals on Wheels. “(But) I don’t think that’s reflective of the need. We’re an English- and French-speaking service. The food and language are not necessarily appropriate for them (Chinese people).
“When someone is ill or is just feeling unwell, you want food that you’re accustomed to. So I think that’s why it’s important to try and meet their needs.”
Snyder says Meals on Wheels plans to meet privately with various groups that would be helping to develop the program Feb. 14. He notes a final decision to go ahead with the program’s development has yet to be made.
Most of the current meals consist of soup, a hot main course, dessert and fruit or a salad. There is a Kosher Meals on Wheels program for Orthodox Jewish clients. She says there have also been talks with Villa Marconi, an Italian seniors residence, about establishing an Italian meal plan.
Clients currently pay $4.20 a meal. Snyder says this would likely stay the same with a Chinese meal plan .
“You can imagine a person who has eaten rice their whole life and then goes into a long-term care centre where they eat potatoes and all kinds of Western food,” says Eric Lam, acting executive director of the Yet Keen Seniors’ Day Centre. “You can imagine they would be rather uncomfortable with it.”
Yet Keen, which caters specifically to Chinese seniors, isn’t the only organization that has been sought out by Meals on Wheels. The Somerset West Community Health Centre and the Glebe Centre will also help out.
“It’s not as if we have our own kitchen and we can hire a Chinese cook . . . We have to rely on what’s available in the community,” Snyder says. “We’d have the menu devised by someone familiar with Chinese eating habits. It has to be food that can be transported well . . . it still has to look good after an hour.”
Many at Yet Keen support the plan, even if they don’t use Meals on Wheels themselves.
“Most of the Chinese people here are immigrants, they prefer rice to steak or potato,” says retired 66-year-old Vincent Chiu, who has lived in Canada for 45 years. “We got used to traditional Chinese food.”