Teaming up to deliver hundreds of meals to elderly

Liebke Tyres and Emerge Cafe cooked up a storm to deliver hearty meals to the elderly over Easter.

LIEBKE Tyres teamed up with Emerge Cafe to cook and deliver a week's worth of meals to more than 100 elderly members of the community this Easier.

Liebke Tyres owner Chris Liebke said while he had some time off over Easter, it was the perfect time to get out and support the community.

"I'm of the age where a lot of my friends have parents in their 70s, and a lot of them are stuck at home and they're at really high risk," Mr Liebke said.

"I figured I can't do anything or go anywhere, and so I might as well help.

"Everyone knows someone in that age group who is vulnerable."

Mr Liebke said he had approached Emerge Cafe to help with the meals.

"Because they (Emerge) work with youth on the street and they're shut down at the moment and they're a bit restless," he said.

"So we thought we'd get them off the streets and get them active doing something good."

The team of 12 volunteers, including four young people from Emerge, helped cook the meals in shifts in Emerge Cafe's kitchen on Thursday, ready to be delivered over the long weekend.

The meals included a spaghetti bolognese, pumpkin soup, a chicken casserole and a sausage hot pot.

Emerge founder Jen Shaw said they would make a "couple of hundred" meals for vulnerable members of the community.

"We're targeting the elderly in our community who are feeling quite isolated," Ms Shaw said.

"Food always connects people, so it's a way to do that and it reminds people we're still a community and we're here to help.

"We've done lots of stuff with Chris over the years, he's a great community guy.

"He asked if we'd like to get involved and help keep some of our kids amused and help out.

"It gives the kids that sense of community as well and some sort of control among all the chaos."

Ms Shaw said they would be cooking in two hour shifts to make sure they were still practising social distancing.