Hills District Independent August 2020 #62 August 2020 | Page 12

LOCAL LIFE
MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Rachel Golding
Dinner on the Table
by Lorna Gordon
Rachel Golding started
her career as an academic.
She researched families and
documented the impacts on the
family when a member had a
disability.
Over the course of her research
she saw that the kind of support
that families with disabled
members needed at household
level was not being met.
When her contract ended at
university, she began to make
home cooked meals for her family,
and a friend who was working
and time poor asked if she would
make some for her too. Before too
long, helping one friend became
helping many others, and from
there the idea for Dinner on the
Table was born.
Rachel started to think
there was a potential to set up
a business and she rented a
commercial kitchen to work in.
She laughed when she told me
about the early days of getting her
business off the ground.
“I began cooking from home,
then found a commercial kitchen
and rented it one day a week. I
cooked and did the deliveries to
the Mums at school with insulated
bags hanging off the stroller! I look
back on it now and laugh, I was so
naïve,” she laughed.
I asked what kept her going
through those crazy start up times
and she told me it was the help
she was giving women at home.
“Many of our customers are
women. In Australia it’s mostly
women who oversee the meal
planning and prep and they need
options. Getting freshly prepared
food from us saves time and
energy, offers a healthy alternative
to takeaway, and impacts on the
weekly budget.”
Rachel was soon able to
combine the research findings
from her academic life and her
newfound career - now she was
able to give back to others. She
quickly started providing free
meals to families with disabled
members at home.
“My research had shown that
intervention at a household level
was lacking and I realised having
a dinner made for you is one way
to meet that need. It helps provide
extra time to the family, gives
excellent nutrition and takes the
pressure off the family budget by
not having to purchase a meal,”
Rachel told me.
“This can make a huge
difference to those who need
to provide extra support and
the monetary cost of that to the
family.”
At present Dinner on the Table
gifts these meals to families in
need. A few people Rachel has
helped since start up still pick up
their meals, but most are given to
local charities to distribute. While
they are looking at ways for the
community to donate money, at
present the best way to support
them is to buy a meal for your
own family as the donated meals
are provided from the profit the
business makes.
Having checked out the menus
and food on offer I don’t think you
could go wrong by ordering a meal
or two for your own family. Not
only will you save time and energy
and get to enjoy delicious meals,
you will also be supporting a local
business and helping put dinner
on the table for families who need
support. You can find out more
about Dinner On the Table at
www.dinneronthetable.com.au.
Rachel has managed to
combine her love of food
and helping families
through Dinner on the Table.
12 ISSUE 62 // AUGUST 2020 www.hdinews.com.au THE HILLS INDEPENDENT