Meals On Wheels Essay Research Paper In

Meals On Wheels Essay, Research Paper

In this paper I will explain Meals on Wheels and how it got started, where it is located, what they do, who they serve, how they re funded, areas of volunteer service (volunteers and training), how Meal on Wheel benefits the community, and the history of the program.

This program got started as an experimental meal program after the war that only served seven seniors. A lot of homes were lost during the war due to German planes that bombed homes and for those that were fortunate enough to keep there lives but not there homes, so people couldn t cook for themselves. Then the Women s Volunteer Service for Civil Defense responded to this by preparing and delivering meals to the neighbors in need. The women also prepared refreshments in canteens to servicemen in World War II. The canteen were the known as Meals on Wheels , which was the first meal program in the United States. Meals on Wheels has served only seven seniors in 1954 whose homes had been destroyed during the war to now serving millions to elderly, disabled, or people that are at risk across the country.

Meal on Wheels is located all across the United States. There are millions of locations that provide to a whole range of people with different reasons for needing this service. There are twenty-three locations across North Carolina with some of the closest ones being Davidson CO Senior Services, Lexington; Meals on Wheels of Rowan, Inc; and Blue Ridge Opportunity Community. Inc., Wilksboro and all of these that provide to people in need of a meal who otherwise wouldn t have got one and would have had to go hungry.

Meals on Wheels first of all i.e. at just one of the 23 places in North Carolina on any day Monday through Friday starts out by cooking a number of meals for all of the people that need food with a menu:

MONDAY: Turkey, winter mix vegetables, sweet peas, soup, roll, milk or juice, dessert.

TUESDAY: Baked chicken, vegetable lasagna, collard greens, carrots, salad/roll, milk or juice, dessert.

WEDNESDAY: Baked ham, scalloped potatoes, vegetable sticks, green beans, soup/roll, milk or juice, dessert.

THURSDAY: Shepherd’s pie, vegetable blend, garlic bread, spinach, salad, milk or juice, dessert.

FRIDAY: Fish, baked potato, cauliflower, turnip greens, soup, corn bread/spiced apple rings, milk or juice, dessert.

Then they deliver all of the hot and fresh meals to all of the people on the list to receive meals. Then the meals will either be eaten as lunch or supper. Then the same happens every day for the whole week with only weekends off to get rested up and ready to prepare thousands of meals the next week.

Meals on Wheels started out serving people who houses were destroyed due to German Bomb Planes and providing canteens to servicemen fighting in World War II. Now Meals on Wheels serves Millions of elderly people over 60 years of age. All of the seniors they serve are people with disabilities or people who would have went hungry if Meals on Wheels wasn t there to provide them with a meal once a day. They find out who needs Meal on Wheels assistants by going to the Department of Public Assistance or hospitals social services to find potential clients who are eligible to receive meals on wheels. The hospital releases a list of their hospital patients who were in need of this service which is given to them to seek out people in need of food. They also found out because of neighbors who were concerned about people they new or people that were living near them that they new could use and afford this service so that they wouldn t go hungry. All of these attempts didn t go in vain because all of these methods have enlisted millions of people who now are receiving Meal on Wheels services.

Meals on Wheels is not supported by the government but it does get some money from government funds but the majority of it is from donations. Ever since Meals on Wheel was started all of the centers that offer this is run completely on donation and major contributions from large businesses. Some of these companies are Reynolds Metal Company, the manufacturer of Reynolds Wrap, and many small donations made by people who just want to help out any way they can. Reynolds Wrap celebrated their 50th Anniversary by giving Meals on Wheels 50 Ford Minivans in order to deliver all of the meals. That is how Meals on Wheels is run, and that is by generous people who want to help out people in need. That is how Meals on Wheels has been run for the past 47 years.

Meals on Wheels were started out by women volunteering to prepare and deliver the meals and now it is still run by volunteers to prepare and deliver the food but to a much large scale. Anyone who is willing can be a volunteer that wants to be. All you have to do is go to the nearest center and sometimes they hold special clinics called Training Wheels which prepares people who would like to help with Meals on Wheels to deal with people and cook food.

Meals on Wheels benefits the community by providing meals to people who can t provide warm meals for their selves. This services helps to prevent people who can t afford to go shopping like most Americans can to pay around $0.60 to $1.90 for a warm meal that is of great need to some people with Medical conditions. This helps those who can t prepare their food or go shopping for there own foods at a moment s notice.

Meals on Wheels is an excellent service that was started in Philadelphia, from only serving seven people by cooking their food and taking it to them. Which was probably all done in one kitchen. Then Columbus, Ohio started a meal program on their own that was different from Philadelphia. They got restaurants to donate meals and taxicabs would come by and pick them up and deliver to them. This was a sacrifice for both the restaurants and the taxicab drivers because the taxicab drivers were using their gas and the restaurants weren t making any profit. The only money went to the restaurants to buy more food to make the next day and send it back out to the people in need of a warm meal. Then the City of Rochester, New York started there own meal program which charged 50 cent to $1.85 for a meal and then the Bureau of Chronic Diseases and Geriatrics of the New York Department of Health paid for the remaining cost of the food. All of these programs have improved a lot in the years that it has been building up to this point. It provides all of the people that receive these meals with not only a nice meal but with friends because of the people that deliver to the people in need. Over half of the people receiving Meals on Wheels reported only being able to get out of there homes once a week, so when the volunteers come to deliver there food it gives the elderly someone to talk to and something to look forward to. This program has helped millions of people and will continue to help people for a long time, through donations, contributions, and volunteers that run the whole thing.