Meals on Wheels adapts to coronavirus crisis, but situation in Sacramento is unclear
The Meals on Wheels program has a long history of helping housebound senior citizens get the nutrition they need while living independent lives at home. Organizers believe those services are essential now more than ever as the world confronts an infectious disease that is most deadly among older people with underlying medical conditions.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, demand for home-delivered meals has spiked, according to Jenny Young, vice president of communications for Meals on Wheels America, the organization that supports more than 5,000 independent community-based programs across the country. Young said traffic on the organization’s Find Meals page was up 650 percent over the past two weeks as states across the country issued stay-at-home orders in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Meals on Wheels is serving an incredibly vulnerable population of homebound seniors and we’re seeing a whole new wave of 65-plus homebound people,” Young said. “People who were normally able to get out, go to the grocery store and prepare their own meals are now being told to stay home.”
Young said local Meals on Wheels programs have adapted to the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks based on conditions and recommendations in the communities they serve. Most quickly closed congregate dining sites and moved entirely to no-touch delivery systems, Young said.
Sacramento Meals on Wheels
The situation is unclear in Sacramento County, where Meals on Wheels by ACC serves an average of 2,000 Sacramento County seniors every day, according to its website. Executive director Kevin McAllister referred interview requests to Darrick Lam, the organization’s president and CEO, but Lam did not respond to repeated attempts to reach him through email, voicemail and text messages.
According to the Meals on Wheels by ACC website, the organization suspended its All Seasons Café operations under public-gathering orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health. Sacramento’s homebound and congregate program participants are continuing to receive home-delivered meals, but the program is at capacity and cannot accept new participants. The organization also said it is unable to onboard new volunteers and has suspended new-volunteer orientations until public health guidelines have been lifted.
Young said about 75 percent of Meals on Wheels volunteers are 55 and older, “so our volunteer base is high-risk.” Young said some organizations are “desperately in need” of volunteers and others are turning them away. She said many local Meals on Wheels programs are making larger, less-frequent deliveries, providing enough food for several days to limit personal contact and the need for volunteers.
“We’re seeing a shift now to making one larger delivery a week or every two weeks, but making sure they have enough food for that period — frozen meals, shelf-stable meals, along with grocery bags and things like that,” Young said. “We want to make sure they’re good the entire time.”
Need for resources
President Donald Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020, providing $750 million in emergency funding for the Older Americans Act (OAA) congregate, home-delivered and Native American nutrition services. Young said the emergency funding collectively represents more than 75 percent of the current annual appropriations for OAA congregate and home-delivered services.
“The funding we’re getting from the federal government is unprecedented,” Young said. “We’ve never gotten this level of funding so quickly, so that was really just a signal of how everyone can agree that Meals on Wheels is vital.”
Meals on Wheels has also received substantial donations from a number of big corporations, including Major League Baseball, Walmart and AARP, but Young said the organization still needs help. She said about 60 percent of annual contributions come from individual donations and local grants.
How you can help
Those who want to help communities across the country meet the increased demand for nutritious meals can donate to the Meals on Wheels COVID-19 Response Fund.
Donors have given more than $7 million so far to replenish food and supplies, subsidize additional transportation and personnel costs, and more. Young said donations also help Meals on Wheels with tech-based efforts to check in on isolated seniors, facilitate supply-chain logistics with national vendors to help the hardest-hit communities and support the timely distribution of science-based information needed to ensure safe care for seniors.
“This is really shining a spotlight on Meals on Wheels,” Young said. “We are doing this every day over 365 days a year. It’s vital because there isn’t another population that’s homebound regardless of COVID-19, and we are really here to serve them.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 12:35 PM.
