Category: Monthly Newsletter

April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and it can be hard to find the words to express our gratitude for our AMAZING volunteers. Their dedication and commitment to the community and our mission is inspiring! From delivering the meals, serving in our dining centers, to helping in the administrative office, our volunteers step in wherever is needed! Please join us in giving our volunteers a friendly thank you for everything they do!

We are transitioning to our Spring/Summer Menu Cycle. Popular items like our Mac & Cheese, Chef Salad, and Chicken Salad Sandwich meals are returning! We also hope to be introducing some new menu items soon so be on the lookout!

Celebrate Your Pet wish lists have been coming in steadily. Please remember to get those back to us by April 11th to allow our volunteers time to get those filled. We will be delivering those bags in May! We try to fill every wish but cannot guarantee that we will be able to grant each one. If you are in need of a wish list, please speak with a Site Lead at a dining center or call our administrative office at 509-735-1911.

The Washington State Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program is kicking off once again and we will administer the program on their behalf. These benefits are for qualified seniors who are residents of Benton and Franklin Counties. Participants are required to complete a new application each year, to be included on the list to receive one, please call our office at 509-735-1911. We will also have applications available at all of our dining centers and administrative office. Benefit cards are provided on a first- come, first-served basis, so it is important to FULLY complete and return the application as soon as possible. You can mail your applications in or drop them off at our administrative office or your closest dining site.

You can mail your completed applications to:
Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels
1824 Fowler Street
Richland, WA 99352

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Spring is Almost Here! As we welcome the approach of spring, I’m looking forward to warmer weather and more time spent outdoors! It’s always a joy to witness everything blooming and coming back to life after the winter months.

We would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the meal sealing issues that occurred recently. After a thorough investigation, we were able to pinpoint the problem and have since replaced the faulty equipment. We hope this issue is behind us and appreciate everyone’s patience during that time.

We’re excited to announce a new and beneficial partnership with Benton Franklin Transit (BFT). We are now able to distribute FREE Senior Passes for the BFT bus system! If you’re 65 or older and interested in obtaining a pass, simply contact our office or ask a Site Lead for more information. To register, we’ll need your name, birth date, phone number, and email address (if available). Once registered, you can either pick up your pass at the site or receive it with your regular meal delivery. We’re thrilled to offer this service and grateful for our partnership with Benton Franklin Transit.

In addition, our Emergency Shelf Stable Meal Boxes have been delivered. A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers who helped with the distribution to our Home Delivery clients. These boxes are intended for use in case we’re unable to deliver meals due to weather or other emergencies.

Lastly, we’re excited to announce the launch of our annual Celebrate Your Pet program! Wish lists are now being distributed to all Home Delivery clients, and forms will be available at each Dining Site for our Congregate participants. Completed lists should be returned to us by Friday, April 11th, either by mail or at a Dining Site. A huge thank you to Joan and her team of Elves for managing this special part of our program!

We are looking forward to a wonderful spring and all the exciting opportunities ahead. Thank you again for your continued support!

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Welcome February! It is hard to believe that we are already in the second month of the year! We have been tallying the results from our Annual Survey and wanted to thank everyone who provided their feedback. This information helps us to identify areas for improvement, areas that are going well, and helps give us an overall view of how our participants feel about our program. One main area that was identified as needing some attention is our menu. We are going to be working on identifying other meal options to replace some of our less desired meals and hope that these changes will be received well. We are specifically focusing on our pork chop meals and tuna noodle casserole.

Our program experienced growth in 2024, and I would like to share some statistics with you:

• Total clients served‒2,518! (Up nearly 4% compared to 2023)
• Total meals served‒249,959! (Up 6.5% compared to 2023)

We welcome all our new participants and our excited to serve you!

We strive to provide the best service we can and always appreciate feedback on how we are doing!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

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Happy New Year!! Hope everyone had a great end to the year and are just as excited for 2025 as we are! We had quite the year for Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels. We turned 50 and celebrated in style with our first ever Gala! We had our most successful OktoberFeast ever! We saw growth in our meal service programs and are honored to be serving even more members of the community! We grew our family with even more community partners and are blessed to be supported by so many wonderful organizations and community members! The list goes on and on for all the great things we achieved in 2024, and we know that 2025 is going to be even better!

We have completed our Holiday Gift Program for the year with a record 473 participants! This is an increase of 100 participants compared to 2023 and we cannot be more thankful for the wonderful group of “Elves” that put all the bags together. Thank you to each community member who helped complete the wish lists, we could not have done this without your support. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped deliver these bags and to the staff who pivoted to help as needed. This is such an incredible program, and we hope that each participant got to feel how much the community supports them.

I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to all the volunteers, staff, community partners and supporters who make Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels such an amazing organization. Without each and every one of you we could not complete our mission! You all are the heart of the organization and are making a difference to so many! THANK YOU!!!