New Meals on Wheels menu gets South Island thumbs-up

MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 29 November 2016

New Meals on Wheels menu gets South Island thumbs-up

Meals on Wheels (MoW) volunteer drivers – invited to give Compass Group’s new MoW menu a test drive at a Dunedin Hospital tasting session this week – have given the new menu a big thumbs-up.

Created by Compass Group’s Medirest specialist team, the menu was tested on Monday 28 November making Dunedin one of the first cities in New Zealand to enjoy the new meals.

“We genuinely wanted to hear drivers’ feedback and are delighted with their response. We had a number of positive conversations about the menu during the tasting,” says Medirest National Development and Innovation Manager Lauren Scott, adding that about 30 drivers attended indicating a high level of interest from local residents around the quality of the new menu.

“Within one day we also received a number of calls from people saying how good the meals are and that it is the ‘best change ever’.”

Compass Group regularly reviews and updates its services and menus, including Meals on Wheels.

“We do this to ensure variety of taste, to be responsive to our clients’ needs (and their stakeholders’ feedback) and to act on any feedback we receive,” says Ms Scott.

In line with this, Compass Group gathered feedback from the drivers, recipients, health professionals and community groups to create the new menu. The company also has a new supplier on board that specialises in ready-to-eat meals for older people, including expertise in cooking nutritious dishes using more ‘home-style’ methods.

Compass Group will begin serving Southern District Health Board recipients the new menu from this week. The menu includes currently popular dishes, as well as refreshed meals including: mashed or roast potato replacing the less popular scalloped potato; more slow-cooked meals such as casseroles; and increased choice.

Ms Scott adds, “Because this menu is very much based on recipients’ feedback, including a selection of their favourite meal choices, we are confident they will enjoy it. We invite them to tell us what they think about the menu.”

A tasting session was also held for Invercargill’s volunteer drivers to try out the new menu, as well as to give the company their feedback on taste and quality.

ENDS

About Compass Group

Compass Group (New Zealand) Ltd is wholly owned by Compass Group PLC, the world’s leading food services and support services company. We have provided food services and support services to our clients in New Zealand for more than 25 years through our brands Eurest, Restaurant Associates, Medirest, and ESS.

Our objective is to deliver value to our customers by leveraging the benefits of being a group to deliver structured and sustainable organic growth and achieve our vision to be a world-class provider of food services and support services.

About Medirest

Medirest provides specialist food, hospitality and support services to residents and patients in hospitals and senior living facilities throughout New Zealand. As a global leader we intimately understand this market and are trusted to deliver world-class service to many residences, healthcare groups and hospitals.

Medirest recognises the importance of providing a flexible, individually tailored local service to meet the specialist needs of our clients. This is why we are at the forefront of industry innovation, constantly evolving and refining our healthcare offer.

About Meals on Wheels

Compass Group has more than 20 years’ experience of providing Meals on Wheels services to people across the country. Recipients are served a main meal and chilled dessert each day, with a daily vegetarian alternative available to all.

The main meals are prepared by Frozen Fresh by working closely with Compass Group’s own teams of dietitians and culinary experts. Together we develop appetising and nutritionally balanced recipes that meet the Ministry of Health’s food and nutrition standards. Each meal is freshly cooked, then rapidly frozen using the latest technology to retain taste, texture and nutrition.

Dessert items are made by Florentines, a Mt Manganui-based company that has been making patisserie cakes and desserts for over 20 years.

• Please see the new menu attached.

NEW_MOW_MENU_NOV_28.pdf

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