No One Need Eat Alone Tonight

Social isolation is a major cause of poor health including nutrition and mental health and affects 1 in every 3-4 people who live alone. This project was created as part of Tapping the Demographic Dividend.

Project Summary

This project sought to bring innovation to social eating programs aimed at seniors by the development of three test models. The project worked with Test Kitchen https://www.testkitchenproject.com on consultation and model development. A consultation session was held in October 2017 with local government social eating program coordinators and home and community care providers, Meals on Wheels, dietitians and other groups operating in this space.

The information gathered at this session, plus further one-on-one consultations identified three potential test models:

• Residential dining, encouraging and facilitating locals to mix and socialise;
• Home, this model proposed to work with a cluster of Meals on Wheels clients encouraging them to eat together with their meals being delivered to the one address;
• Community dining breakfast utilising a community space for a social dining experience.

The Community and residential dining models were tested with a breakfast event held in April 2018 at the Goolwa Community Hub and an Epicurious Dining event at a number of locations in Victor Harbor held over two days that sought to engage with people (particularly older people) and support them to dine socially.