Meals on Wheels - Nov 2009

Meals on Wheels Delivers Lunch with a Smile

Food & Friends Feeds The Neediest Thanks to Local Volunteers and Donors

This November most Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving, a time to get together with family and friends to give thanks for the blessings in our lives, including our nation’s abundance of food.

Yet amid the plenty, thousands of seniors and disabled people in Jackson and Josephine County cannot manage even one hot meal a day. For these folks, Food & Friends volunteers make every day a day for being thankful.

Food & Friends is the senior meals program of Jackson and Josephine County. Evelyn Kinsella, Nutrition Program Manager for Food & Friends, said, “We help people maintain their health and independence by providing them with nutritious food, social interaction, and a safety check by caring members of their own community.”

In an average month, Food & Friends volunteers deliver 15,000 hot lunches to homebound seniors and other adults who are unable to prepare their own meals due to frailty, infirmity, or disability. Food & Friends serves 4,000 more meals each month at 12 lunch sites scattered throughout Jackson and Josephine County.

When asked about the importance of Food & Friends to the local community, Dr. Dave Gilmour, Jackson County Commissioner, said, “We have a significant number of frail elderly folks living alone, whose only meal each day is brought to them by Food & Friends. If the meals were not brought to their homes, they would die by starvation. In America, no one should die that way,” said Gilmour.

A typical Food & Friends meal includes a main entrée, two vegetables or fruit, fresh bread, milk, and a dessert. Although the meal is free, Food & Friends clients can make a voluntary donation. The suggested donation for a meal is $2.75, but clients can donate whatever they can afford. The average donation is $1.

The bond between Food & Friends clients and volunteers is a lesser-known but significant part of Food & Friends’ public service. Carol H., a Food & Friends client, said, “We really enjoyed the volunteer driver who brought the meals, he was just delightful. It’s the extra socialization; it’s more than just bringing the meals. It got us through some hard times.”

Kinsella explained why Food & Friends volunteers deliver a smile with every meal: “A vital aspect of our program is to ensure homebound participants are receiving safety checks and social connectivity through daily visits by caring volunteers. For many of our clients, especially in the more remote rural areas, our volunteer delivery driver is the only contact with the outside world they receive each day. This daily contact is often as important as the meals they receive. Our home delivery volunteers are often the first to notice health or safety concerns regarding our clients which signal they may be at risk and to take steps to connect them to other services as needed.”

U.S. Census records indicate seniors currently comprise 17 percent of Jackson County’s population, and 21 percent of Josephine County’s population – both well above the 13 percent average for Oregon counties. So programs like Food & Friends are already under pressure to meet public demand and that demand is expected to grow significantly over the next decade as 76 million U.S. baby boomers reach retirement age.

Kinsella said Food & Friends is working hard to keep up with more and more requests for help. “Although federal funding has failed to keep up with the increase in need in Southern Oregon, especially for home delivered meals, we have successfully compensated by increasing our focus on local fundraising and volunteer recruitment. The total number of meals served by Food & Friends has increased approximately 9 percent in the past three years,” said Kinsella.

In addition to numerous individual donors, a bevy of organizations provide funding for Food & Friends, including federal, state, and local governments, the United Way, the Carpenter Foundation, the West Family Foundation, the Chaney Family Foundation, the Four Way Foundation, the Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Munson Family Foundation. Food & Friends’ annual budget is nearly $1.8 million. Food & Friends is currently seeking volunteers to help prepare and deliver meals. A ride-along with a Food & Friends volunteer is available to help potential volunteers decide whether or not to sign up. After passing a background check, new volunteers receive free training, ongoing encouragement and support, and the opportunity to become a hero in the eyes of homebound seniors and disabled adults.

For more information, call Food & Friends at 541.734.9505 or visit them on the Web at www.rvcog.org.