This month I want to dedicate my space to an announcement I’d like to share with you. If you know someone who is looking for somewhere to make a charitable donation, now would be a great time to tell them about this challenge. I am constantly amazed at the generosity of our community! Without generous help like this, we would not have the funds needed to provide meals to all the seniors who request our service. Thank you, Tom!
Double the Money Challenge Supporting Meals on Wheels, a Personal Invitation:
My name is Tom. My wife and I value Meals on Wheels and the people who are served. We care enough that we are willing to donate up to $10,000 to challenge others who also care about seniors having a warm balanced meal along with a friendly well-being check. My wife and I will match dollar for dollar, up to $10,000, every Double the Money donation through September 30. If $25 is given, we will match that amount to provide a $50 total donation to Meals on Wheels. $500 will become $1,000 and so on. With enough support, $10,000 will become $20,000!
Please share this challenge with anyone you know who values the services that Meals on Wheels provides to our community. Whether you share the message or make a donation, please note that it’s for the Double the Money Challenge.
Thank you!
Marcee Woffinden
Nutrition Services Director
Watch this video of Carol, a Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County client who lives alone and struggles with mobility, speaking directly to Congress on behalf of the more than 10 million seniors who face the threat of hunger nationwide. Carol’s story will likely sound familiar to you, as it reflects the experience of so many of the seniors your programs serve.
One in four Meals on Wheels locations has a waiting list of hungry senior citizens waiting for lunch. Sadly with the lack of funding Meals on Wheels can’t provide them with the services they need. Meals on Wheels is petitioning Congress for more fund and they need your help. The deadline for their decision is Septemeber 30th. There are three ways you can show your support.
1. Retweet-to tell your Congress leader how you feel.
2. Skip Lunch- Show your solidarity with 10 million seniors struggling with hunger by posting a picture of your empty lunch plate on social media using the hashtag #SaveLunch.
3. Tell Congress- Email your Members of Congress. We’ll connect you directly to their offices, so you can share what’s on your mind.
Give the seniors receiving and in need of Meals on Wheels a powerful voice!
It’s July and we typically think of celebrations in July. As I write this newsletter today, we are about to have our annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Our volunteers and all their hard work are truly worth
celebrating. We have volunteers who do many things. Here are some examples of what they do:
Work in dining center kitchens; they help set up and clean up. They serve food and wash dishes. Our sites just couldn’t operate without them.
Deliver meals on 40 different routes. It’s been said, “without their wheels, there’d be no meals.” That statement is spot-on.
Provide reception and registration at our dining centers. Friendly faces greet and register lunch guests as they arrive.
Work in the office, where they file, organize, fold, staple, cut, enter computer data, make phone calls, make name tags, and so much more.
Volunteer at special event throughout the year for things such as volunteer recognition events, Fun Run, Farmers Market, Food Bank deliveries, nursing student visits, maintenance of our building and
grounds, garden boxes, and even a couple of Eagle Scout projects, just to name a few.
Drive as transporters who deliver bulk prepared foods to Pasco and Parkside. When we add up all this service, we come up with over 350 people giving more than 25,000 hours and driving 92,000 miles last year.
In this newsletter, you will see some pictures from the Volunteer Recognition dinner. Take a look and find a volunteer to thank, and help me “Celebrate” all they do for Meals on Wheels, making our community a better place to live.
June 9th is the first annual George & Pat Jones Community Service Day, and we have a couple great groups who are coming to help with some projects:
Gesa Credit Union’s Financial Education Team will give a workshop on scams and keeping yourself safe when it comes to identity theft, phone scams, and even online dating sites.
Another community group will build additional raised garden boxes for us and help with some landscape.
We appreciate all the help and we thank our community for their on-going support. In addition to the service day, we’re looking forward to June 20th, when we host our annual Volunteer Recognition Event. If you’re a volunteer for Meals on Wheels, please mark your calendar for 4-6 pm, and watch for your invitation in the mail. We couldn’t provide meals without all your help and support!
On March 22, 1972, President Nixon signed into law a measure that amended the Older Americans Act of 1965 and established a national nutrition program for seniors. For nearly 45 years, senior nutrition programs like ours have delivered more than just nutritious meals to seniors at risk of hunger and isolation in virtually every community across the country. We’ve also delivered friendly visits and made sure our seniors are safe in their own homes, where they want to be.
Nationally we’ve come together each March since 2002 to celebrate these vital programs, increase awareness in our communities and recruit the support needed to meet rising demand. Over the last 15 years, the campaign has grown significantly in size and impact into an annual nationwide month-long celebration in hundreds of communities around the country.
Here’s how we are celebrating in our community:
March 7: CG Public House (formally Country Gentleman) is hosting a Fundraising Breakfast to support Meals on Wheels at the TRAC Center. Additional sponsors for this event include TRAC and McCurley Integrity Subaru, who will present the Subaru Share the Love check to Meals on Wheels. Breakfast is available 7:30—8:30 am, and everyone is invited to please attend. There is no cost for breakfast, but we hope you will offer financial support for Meals on Wheels. For reservations, please call 735-1911.
March 25: Meals on Wheels’ first annual Fun Run or Don’t Run FUN-Raiser Blue Brigade Run at Howard Amon Park. Come join us at the park, or do any other activity you feel like doing—climb a mountain, mow the lawn, watch TV. Send us a picture of you in your Blue Brigade Fun Run shirt so we can share. For more details or to sign up, go to www.seniorliferesources.org, or see page 5 of this newsletter.
March 20-24: Community Champions are invited to ride along on a meal delivery route to learn more about Meals on Wheels and the important work we do. To schedule a ride-along, please call our office at 735-1911.
March 29: Blue Brigade Senior Dining Day at the new café. Join the party from 11 am to 1 pm as we serve soup and a sandwich and a Blue ICEE on us!
Please join us at any or all of the events we have planned, and celebrate MARCH for MEALS!
Looking for a great way to serve your community? We have opportunities for volunteer drivers to drive new routes in Kennewick and Pasco, and from our new café in south Richland. Please call our office at 735–1911 or let us know via Facebook. Volunteers change the world!
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Exciting news! For the ninth year running, the Meals on Wheels network is participating in the Subaru Share the Love Event. Over for the past eight years, Subaru has donated nearly $10 million to Meals on Wheels—that’s the equivalent of more than 1.4 million meals to seniors across the country!
Why does Subaru support Meals on Wheels? Too many seniors are struggling to stay independent and healthy. One in four seniors lives alone in isolation and one in six seniors might not know from where their next meal is coming. This is simply unacceptable, which is why Senior Life Resouces Northwest provides the nutritious meals, friendly visits and safety checks to the seniors of Eastern Washington. This vital support keeps seniors in their own homes, where they want to be.
We’re incredibly grateful to Subaru and its retailers for supporting our organization and the seniors we serve. With that in mind, we thought you might want to learn a little bit more about the Share the Love Event.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
This November 17, 2016 through January 3, 2017, for every new Subaru vehicle leased or sold, Subaru will donate $250 to the customer’s choice of participating charities. Meals on Wheels America is one of four national participating charities, and has been since the inception of the event. And through this campaign, as a Member of Meals on Wheels America, Senior Life Resouces Northwest will receive a share of the revenue earned in Washington State.
You might not be in the market to purchase a new car, but if you are—please look into the Share the Love Event to learn more. If you’re not shopping for a new vehicle, you can still help by spreading the word to your family and friends. A few quick and easy ways to do that:
And remember– this holiday season, you can ensure our senior neighbors are not forgotten when you buy or lease a new Subaru and select Meals on Wheels America as your charity of choice.
“It is a true testament to the value of Meals on Wheels and the strength of our nationwide network that Subaru of America and its customers choose to give back to this vital service year after year,” said Ellie Hollander, President and CEO, Meals on Wheels America. “Since its inception, Share the Love has helped deliver more than 1.4 million meals to seniors served by Meals on Wheels. It is our hope that this year’s event ensures that even more seniors receive the nourishment they need to continue living independently at home.”
December is an exciting month for us: we hope to open our new senior dining café! There are still a couple of construction projects to be completed, including the installation of the hood above the range we will use for cooking classes and demonstrations, and the heat lamps for keeping meals warm.
What will the café mean to seniors in our community? The café will provide an additional dining site, extended dining hours, and some new menu choices. The dining room will be open for lunch service from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The café will also have some menu choices where a senior can choose the traditional senior meal or a combination of soup, salad or sandwiches. We are so pleased to offer these options!
We hope to have the senior café open no later than December 19, when the Richland dining center will be closed for a week for floor refinishing.
Another change coming our way is the move of our Pasco dining center. The City of Pasco has sold the Senior Center building to Pasco School district. The last I heard, the building will be used for an early childhood education center. The City is remodeling and opening a triple-wide mobile building that will become our new Pasco dining center as soon as it’s ready. Goal date for relocation is the first week of December. We’ll announce more details as they become available.
All of us here at Meals on Wheels and Senior Life Resources want to wish you and those you care about a very happy Holiday Season!
I promised to share with you some of the results from our annual client survey, so here they are!
From our Senior Dining participants:
Do the meals help me eat healthier and more balanced meals? Yes—104, N—3, Unsure—1.
Is the staff friendly and helpful? Yes—107, No—1, Unsure—0.
Is the hot food hot and the cold food cold? Yes—107, No—1, Unsure—0.
Do the meals taste good? Yes—105, No—0, Unsure—3.
Are the volunteers friendly and helpful? Yes—108, No—0, Unsure—0.
Do the meals help you remain independent? Yes—99, No—1, Unsure—8.
Does participating in the meals program help you stay socially and mentally active? 94% yes.
Would you recommend this program to your friends? 100% yes.
Do you feel that eating at the dining center reduces some of your financial burdens? 90% yes.
Do you feel the portions we serve are the right size? 87% yes. Of clients who responded no, some felt the meals were too small, while others felt the meals were too large.
From our Home Delivered Meals participants:
Generally, are you satisfied with the way your meals taste? Yes—117, No—6, Unsure—5.
Has receiving Meals on Wheels improved your health? Yes—85, No—14, Unsure—30.
Does receiving meals allow you to continue living independently and in your own home? Yes—117, No—4, Unsure—7.
Has receiving Meals on Wheels allowed you to eat a more balanced diet? Yes—117, No—7, Unsure—6.
Does the hot food arrive warm and ready to eat? Yes—126, No—0, Unsure—1.
Are the delivery volunteers polite and respectful? Yes—128, No—0, Unsure—0.
Do your meals arrive between 11 am and 12 noon? Yes—127, No—1, Unsure—1.
Do you feel you have more social contact due to the driver visit each day? 89% yes.
During the last month, have you had to choose between buying food & paying for utilities and/or medication? 19% yes.
Since starting Meals on Wheels, do you feel a greater sense of security having a daily home visit? 86% yes.
Do you feel the portions we serve are the right size? 87% yes. Of clients who responded no, some felt the meals were too small, while others felt the meals were too large.
In the next couple of months we’ll also include some of the comments from the survey. Thanks to all of you who took the time to complete the survey. We love to hear from you!
It’s that time of year again. Each year in August we send out our annual survey to all those who participate in either our Dining Center meals or receive their meals delivered to their homes. It’s your opportunity to tell us how we are doing and what the meal service means to you. The information we receive from you helps us plan for the future. We also use what you tell us in grant applications and in reports we’re required to complete.
When the survey comes to you, either at the dining center or at your home, please take a few minutes to fill it out. We promise to keep it short and easy to complete. Just tell what you think and how we are doing. You may mail it back to us, turn it in at the dining center, or give it to the driver who brings your meals.
Thank you very much for helping with this important project. Each year I look forward to your comments. I will be sharing some of the results in the newsletter in a couple months after we compile all the results.
