Lynne Mowbray The Grafton Meals on Wheels celebrated its 50th anniversary on Monday, November 9, with a luncheon and cake cutting at their Grafton rooms. Life Member Beryl Power, 86, was at the inaugural meeting about forming a Meals on Wheels service, which was held at the Christ church Cathedral. “We started off delivering about a dozen meals a day, which quickly grew as people found out about us,” said Ms Power. “I remember the first meal we (Gloria Seymore and I) delivered was on a Monday morning and it was a baked dinner. “The good part was the people who would meet you at the front door and sometimes it was the only contact they had with people. “It made you feel good that you could make someone happy by filling in just a few minutes with them during the day and because many of them lived alone, they would look forward to seeing you and it’s sad to say, but it’s still the same today. “It’s wonderful to see how big we’ve grown in numbers from the half a dozen members that we started with, to now one of the biggest Meals on Wheels on the north coast.” Ms Power only stopped volunteering about five years ago, however as she is a life member, she still drops in to say hello. Another life member Gloria Campbell 85, is still an active member and helps out in the kitchen peeling the veggies and serving up, once a month. “I use to do the deliveries but it got a bit hard getting up the stairs with the meals, so I asked if I could help out in the kitchen instead,” she said. Today the Grafton Meals on Wheels have 120 volunteers, nine paid staff, they serve up 2800 hot meals a month, 1500 frozen meal packs a month and send 1700 frozen and chilled meals to Ballina and Evans Head.