Leeton's Meals on Wheels service has grown exponentially in 2020

With many older residents staying home to keep safe, they have been utilising this valuable service.

Pinnacle Community Services co-ordinator Tanya Lewis, handles this program, as well as three others in Leeton.

With volunteers, who are typically also senior residents, now unable to assist with Meals on Wheels until it is safe to do so, Mrs Lewis has been run off her feet.

However, it's a job she enjoys and she sees not just the value in delivering healthy, nutritious meals to her clients, but also the human connection involved.

It's all done in a COVID-safe way of course, with contactless delivery. Many businesses throughout the pandemic have also jumped on board to offer their own way of making these older residents smile.

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Small bottles of wine have been included with meals, toilet paper when it was a rare commodity was also delivered, along with chocolate bunnies at Easter time.

"I'm getting a delivery every fortnight to meet the supply and demand ... we're also averaging about three referrals a week to the program," Mrs Lewis said.

"These are members of the community who are deemed to be at risk for the virus, so to be able to provide them with this service is crucial.

"We cover about 300kms every Wednesday around the shire delivering the meals."

The service was still offered during the state's lockdown period.

"A lot of our clients were experiencing depression and anxiety around all of the uncertainty, so we're really glad we've been able to still deliver these meals and have a chat with them from a distance just to check in on them ... their welfare and making sure they are okay is really important to us," Mrs Lewis said.

Another service Mrs Lewis co-ordinates as part of her role is home modifications, which has also seen a huge increase in uptake.

"We've done something like 22,000 subsidized home modifications here in Leeton in March, April and May," she said.

"That's things like hand rails, hand-held shower rails," she said.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg, but the community has been extremely grateful to these services.

"We want to make sure we're looking after our elderly residents in the community, especially during these different times," Mrs Lewis said.

"We've even been in touch with the physios and had them give us a worksheet of gentle exercise they can be doing at home.

"Some days when we're out delivering we might take a joke book with us and exchange a joke. It does all make a difference."