The Morrison Government will increase the minimum meals unit price to $7.50 to help aged care providers deliver meals to older Australians receiving aged care at home.
\nMinister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Richard Colbeck said it was a significant step forward to reinforce the tremendous efforts of food providers which help meet the nutritional needs of an increasing number of older Australians.
\n\u201cThis vital measure puts the health and wellbeing of older Australians first, while strengthening the viability of meal providers across the country,\u201d Minister Colbeck said.
\nThe mechanism will see the minimum unit price of $4.90 paid to providers lifted by $2.60.
\nThe changes are expected to be implemented over the course of 2021-22.
\nIt amounts to a $7 million funding injection under the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP).
\nThe CHSP provides home support to Australians aged 65 years and over (or 50 years and over for Indigenous Australians) living at home and in their own communities.
\nMeals are delivered under the CHSP to ensure food security and nutritional and social benefits for older Australians.
\nIn 2020-21, there are 571 meals providers funded by the Australian Government to deliver 11.5\u00a0million meals across Australia.
\nOne provider alone, Meals on Wheels, has been operating in hundreds of metropolitan and rural communities nationally for more than 60 years.
\nMore than 10 million meals every year are delivered with the support of more than 76,000 Meals on Wheels volunteers.
\nAs part of National Volunteer Week, Minister Colbeck acknowledged the efforts of volunteers across the aged care sector \u2013 from those caring for loved ones at home to those who give their time to ensure older and vulnerable Australians receive good food and nutrition.
\n\u201cVolunteers are the backbone of Australia \u2013 but across the aged care sector, each and every day there are remarkable examples from people who put the needs of others ahead of their own,\u201d Minister Colbeck said.
\n\u201cThese people are ultimately providing an important mechanism for older Australians to stay connected, healthy and happy.
\n\u201cThank you to the hundreds of thousands of people volunteer their time to improve the lives of others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Morrison Government will increase the minimum meals unit price to $7.50 to help aged care providers deliver meals to older Australians receiving aged care at home. Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services Richard Colbeck said it was a significant step forward to reinforce the tremendous efforts of food providers which help meet … Continue reading “Nod to volunteers as meal providers receive a funding boost”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}