Eleanor Tait loves to sit down to a hot, homemade meal.
The 84-year-old suffers from mild dementia, so for the last two years, she’s been getting food like this delivered to her by Meals on Wheels West Island.
“Sometimes, the medication she’s on as well, makes her not feel hungry,” said her daughter, Sue Tait. “So the meals are here for her, they’re very healthy — it’s a lot easier.”
Tait is one of 450 people on the West Island who receives meals twice a week.
Usually, a team of about 850 volunteers cook, prepare, package and deliver meals to those like Tait.
But this time around, the food was prepared by a different team.
WATCH: Celebrating West Island Meals on Wheels volunteers
Staff from the Marriott In-Terminal and Sheraton Hotels in Dorval, cooked and prepped food for all of the meals on wheels recipients.
Over a period of two weeks, volunteers can drop by the kitchen at the hotel and pick up the hot meals
“It’s completely donated,” said Food Service Coordinator at Volunteer West Island, Shelley Hayden. “We did not spend one cent out-of-pocket. I don’t know how many turkeys it took, the mashed potatoes, the labour costs. The hotels really stepped up and donated everything.”
The hotels say they want their community to know that there are people thinking of them during the holidays.
“We know there’s a lot of people home alone over Christmas and don’t have anybody visiting them and they can’t go out,” said Marriott In-Terminal General Manager Brenda Rodricks. “So we just felt like this was an amazing program.”
The hotels and Meals on Wheels West Island say this is just the beginning of their newfound partnership, they hope to work together again in the near future.