Meals on Wheels

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Seniors keep freedom via Meals on Wheels program
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by Peter Hawkins
Special Correspondent

December 26, 2003

For many elderly people, the knock on the door once a week from Meals on Wheels is very welcome in a time in their lives when they get few visitors. It's welcome because for a few minutes they have someone to talk to, and doubly welcome because they bring food.

The service is especially important in Broward County where the fastest growing segment of the population is 85 and older. Many of these seniors are housebound. Often they have poor vision and can no longer cook or go shopping. The weekly visit from Broward Meals on Wheels helps them maintain their independence and stay in their own homes instead of going into nursing homes.

Started in 1984 as the Human Services Network Inc., Broward Meals on Wheels has been delivering meals for 19 years to seniors in their homes and at senior centers. The need grows greater, yet the funding has remained static for the past decade, said Meals on Wheels Executive Director, Peggy Miller.

Last year, the Florida Association of Aging and Service Providers presented Broward Meals on Wheels its award for the Most Innovative Program. It is one of the 12 largest senior meal programs in the country, serving a county where 16 percent of the permanent population is 65 or older.

Broward Meals on Wheels delivers meals to about 1,600 people each week and takes meals to 43 senior centers daily. Each year the organization provides about 1.5 million meals.

"The community ought to see Meals on Wheels as a free monitoring service," said Miller. "We go to people who retired for the golden years and left their family, and people don't know they're there. We call our volunteers our eyes and ears.

"Our biggest target is to keep them as independent as possible. We don't want them dependent on us for a free meal."

They also encourage seniors to be active again, and take advantage of the activities at senior centers. They give nutritional advice and they have social workers who screen and monitor each client. The Broward Meals on Wheels dietitian goes into senior centers and conducts sessions on how to eat better.

One of its greatly appreciated services is providing pet food for homebound seniors.

"Broward's Pets on Wheels service started in 1999 after we found that some clients were sharing the meals with their pets," said Miller. "Our Pets on Wheels program serves 110 dogs as well as cats, birds and one rabbit."

She said that volunteers carry out the pets program. The food comes from veterinary offices and pet food companies that donate damaged bags of food or pet food that's about to expire. "None of our federal dollars go into that," she said.

Over the past 10 years, she said, Broward Meals on Wheels has received about $3.1 million annually of which $2.1 million comes from Older Americans Act funding.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a reimbursement for most meals of about 52 cents, which adds up to about $650,000 a year. The balance is donations and contributions mainly from clients.

The administrative costs are 11 percent of the $3.1 million. The agency has 21 office staff members. They include one secretary, one receptionist and one person who takes information over the telephone. There is one fiscal director with an assistant, one volunteer manager and three people to carry out data processing as required for federal grants. The agency also employs a dietitian and it has four social workers in the field.

In the senior centers, about 20 senior volunteers work with Broward Meals on Wheels when the meals arrive. Some are part-time paid and some are paid through the AARP employment program. All the rest of the money goes directly to food, said Miller, and that amounts to about $2 million a year.

"When I was in social work school, I decided I was going to run one of the best social service organizations that was out there," said Miller who has a degree in social administration and lives in Hollywood. "After I did an internship here, John Pudwell, CEO of Broward Meals on Wheels, kept in touch with me and he recruited me to help run this program."

She has worked in various jobs for the agency for 171/2 years. "It's rewarding to know that what you're doing is helping somebody and not just pushing a service at them," she said.

For more information, contact Broward Meals on Wheels at 954-731-8770. Meals on Wheels is at 5950 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Suite 301, Lauderhill, 33313. The organization's Web site is at www.bmow.com .