Food change at Veteran’s Unit appalling

To the Editor:
I have been a volunteer at the Northumberland Veterans Unit in Pictou for several years. It has been my pleasure and privilege to participate in the lives of the veterans on a regular basis. They say that volunteers are ‘good for nothing’, but that’s not true; I’m paid over and over again every time I walk through the doors of the unit. I’ve enjoined spending time with them on shopping and sightseeing trips, I’ve baked Christmas treats with them and I’ve joined dozens of ‘coffee mornings’ with them.
One of their constant delights is what comes out of Darcy Rafuse’s kitchen. He knows each vet personally, caters to each one with careful consideration of their health and related problems, and every coffee time he presents them with something fresh from his oven, and never the same thing two days in a row. He takes time to talk to the vets, and listens carefully to their requests and comments.
I was horror struck to read that the meal plan at the Veteran’s Unit is going to be changed completely, with all meals being brought in frozen and reheated when needed. There was a taste panel that convened recently and no one I spoke to had a positive word regarding either the taste or texture or (and perhaps most importantly) temperature of these meals. Gone is the home cooking flavour and the personal hand of Darcy behind every meal. This is in the interest of cost saving. At present there are twenty vets in the unit, sometimes the number slipping to 14 or 15. In a few years (think about the ages of these lads), there will be none. Is this how we treat men who put their lives on the line for us? Are they not worth, at the very least, a good meal? If you have a relative who is a vet, know a vet, knew a vet, speak up. Write to your local MP, MLA, visit the unit, protest – but speak up. There is federal and provincial waste in the millions. Ask yourself if a small saving should be borne on the backs of 80 and 90 year old men who fought for their country.
Kathleen Crober
Caribou River