What drove you to start Dinner on the Table to support families with disabilities?
During the time I spent researching families with children that had disabilities I wanted to understand their lives─what was taking up their energy and what made things so difficult for them. Like many families dinner time can be very stressful. In the majority of Australian homes women are the people responsible for the planning of meals, shopping, cooking and cleaning for the family. I knew that I could support these families in my unique way by providing them with good wholesome food to feed the whole family.
How does it specifically work supporting these families with disabilities?
Every time someone orders their dinners through our website, they are helping pay for meals for other families. Since we have started our business we have donated over 780 meals to families living with disabilities.
Dinner on the Table is a social enterprise. What is a social enterprise?
This is a great question. It is a business that uses the power of the market place to solve a social problem. Our solution is helping families, who are supporting loved ones with disabilities, to thrive.
How does it work?
Our meals are designed to feed your family – large or small, and our meals are offered in various sizes to suit. Meals come cooked for you and only need some simple preparation.
We also offer frozen meals to stash in your freezer to hedge against the super crazy days. Top up with healthy snacks to make sure packed lunches are stress free and nutritious as well.
You order the meals you want by 6pm on Monday and your order will be delivered to your home that same week.
What areas of Sydney do you deliver to?
Currently we deliver to the Hills Districts, Parramatta, CBD, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Northern Sydney, Western Suburbs and Outer Western Suburbs. You can check out our website for the specific postcodes we deliver to.
What is the big picture for Dinner on the Table─where do you want to take this business?
We currently have a commercial kitchen in the Hills District. I would love for us to move our kitchen to a place where we can have a garden; a place where we could grow some of our own vegetables and herbs that we could use in our meals. I can see our kitchen operating full time and providing dinner for more Sydney families and donating even more meals each week.
In addition to this we would love to be able to offer more employment opportunities to people who have personal experience with disabilities. Job opportunities for people with disabilities are often few and far between. And I know there are many mums caring for children with disabilities out there, who would love to work and contribute for a couple of hours a week, but simply cannot find a workplace that is flexible enough with the demands of their families.
Who may order from Dinner on the Table and how do we do that?
Anyone who needs dinners cooked for them and their families may order from us. You can go to www.dinneronthetable.com.au to find this week’s menu. We would love to cook for you.