As rising costs continue to strain community service organizations, Meals on Wheels, the food delivery program that delivers meals to housebound seniors, is looking to the community for support.
Greater Poughkeepsie Meals on Wheels offers 1 to 2 meals a day five days a week and currently serves 62 individuals, although that number continues to grow, and the price of goods and services is causing some concern among program organizers.
“We’re worried about costs (of supplies),” said Jinny Banks, the president of Greater Poughkeepsie Meals on Wheels, citing the cost increase for products such as milk, bread and eggs.
“The more you charge, the fewer amount of people who can afford to have meals,” she said.
Banks said she doesn’t foresee charging more than the current amount of $4-$5 per individual meal each day or 20 to 25 dollars per week. She said the cost per meal has only increased twice since she started working with Meals on Wheels in the early ‘90s, but the rise in price of supplies is causing Meals on Wheels to seek more assistance from the public.
“The organization constantly needs volunteers in the kitchen, drivers and monetary donations,” said Banks.
Banks said the two meals offered consist of an entree, vegetable or starch, milk and dessert. A second meal offered later in the day includes a sandwich, dessert and milk. She also said diabetic needs are taken into consideration, as well as providing different kinds of nutritious programs.
Banks said she is also concerned with gas price increases, since drivers are not reimbursed.
With over 100 current volunteers, including one cook and three kitchen workers, Banks added that two volunteer drivers are assigned to each of the five routes, so that if an emergency arises, one person can stay to assist the individual while the other finishes deliveries.
She added that most Meals on Wheels meal recipients are elderly – one is 102 years old – but there are no eligibility restrictions for those in need.
“We’ll take anybody,” she said. “We had a woman who had a serious problem, she had one child, and we gave them each a meal.”
Meals are prepared at First Presbyterian Church in the City of Poughkeepsie between 8 and 11:30 a.m. from Monday through Friday.
The organization has been in existence locally for more than 30 years, and prides itself on not only food donations from businesses such as Adams Fairacre Farms and Crowley Foods, but also of its own history.
Banks said Meals on Wheels began locally in October 1971 through the initiative of a woman who attended the First Presbyterian Church in Poughkeepsie and later visited Ohio, where the program was being run. City of Poughkeepsie had five churches, and they soon planned a local Meals on Wheels chapter; during the same year, they had 10 homes and began making their first deliveries in the city and Town of Poughkeepsie.
Sharing a meal
People volunteer for many different reasons, including the desire for a one-on-one encounter with the people being helped.
“We wanted to volunteer, and we wanted to volunteer and have direct contact,” said Vincent Mooney, a retiree who volunteers and drives along the Town of Poughkeepsie route delivering meals with his wife.
“You’re sometimes the only human being that the person speaks to that day,” he said.
Preparing or delivering meals isn’t the only means of direct service given to home bound individuals.
“Occasionally they’ll (food recipients) ask my wife or I to open a jar or change a light bulb,” said Mooney. “They’re things we take for granted.”
Every Monday, Mooney and his wife pick up meals at Tri-Town American Legion Hall off Overlook Road. They deliver meals to as few as 11 or as many as 20 homes per day. Meals are stored in a cooler which contains a cold lunch and dinner, and there is also a insulated bag with hot lunch.
Meals on Wheels also provides a freezer pack which contains a frozen dinner, in case future deliveries are expected to be cancelled due to bad weather.
Mooney said most of the program’s volunteers are retirees. Volunteers also sometimes come from a group home, he said, and social workers often assist them by writing the names of meal recipients on trays.
For more information about Meals on Wheels or to volunteer or contribute to the program, call 452-2245.