Meals on Wheels saves money for Medicaid, Medicare

Nov 16, 2023

Soup for Seniors 2023, run by the Local Office on Aging, collected and distributed 45,000 pounds of shelf-stable food for needy seniors during the annual wintertime collection drive. The bagged and sorted bounty filled the pews and aisles of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Roanoke County. Now, the LOA's preparing for "Let's Give Lunch," its annual June fundraiser to benefit Meals on Wheels. Tickets are $20.

Volunteers at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Roanoke County sort and bag donations during Soup for Seniors, an annual wintertime food drive organized by the Local Office on Aging. This year the program collected and distributed 45,000 pounds of shelf-stable food that went to needy seniors.

Yours truly missed a follow-up column earlier this year regarding Soup for Seniors, so let's cover that base now.

It's about the all-volunteer, zero-overhead, two-week-long annual food drive on behalf of needy, often housebound Roanoke-area senior citizens. It happens around the end of each January.

With the help of churches, schools, businesses and individuals, the Local Office on Aging has spearheaded Soup for Seniors since 2006. And in the program's early days, the agency used to gauge its success by counting cans of soup and boxes of crackers donated and distributed.

In 2007, when former columnist Shanna Flowers promoted Soup for Seniors, the goal was 3,000 cans of soup and 600 boxes of crackers. That year, good-hearted people of the Roanoke Valley donated 22,400 cans and 2,700 cracker boxes.

In more recent years, the LOA's been weighing the collection, which is a little easier than counting individual cans and boxes. In 2022, it collected 43,000 pounds of shelf-stable food that was distributed to needy seniors.

This year, Soup for Seniors realized more than 45,000 pounds. Put another way, that's 22.5 tons of food.

AARP Virginia sponsored Soup for Seniors 2023, along with event partners Black Dog Salvage and APRIA Healthcare, a provider of home medical equipment. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Roanoke County served as the central collection and sorting center.

And local businesses and institutions established satellite centers where generous folks could drop off donations. Those included public libraries in Vinton and Salem, Vistar Eye Center locations, First Bank locations, Evergreen Burial Park and Mountain View Cemetery.

In all, the collection produced enough for 2,700 individual bags, which filled all the pews and aisles, and then some, of the nave at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

Volunteer drivers delivered those bags to clients of various programs operated by the LOA. One of the best known is Meals on Wheel, a lifeline for many low-income seniors in our community.

Mondays through Fridays, Meals on Wheels volunteers pick up and deliver nutritious prepared meals to senior citizens who can't get out of their homes. Currently, the agency is serving 570 Meals on Wheels clients almost daily. That compares with 550 in 2019.

Ron Boyd, the LOA's executive director, said the MOW client list is larger than in recent years thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. It's provided additional funding that's allowed LOA to expand its Meals on Wheels client list to 570 seniors.

Between Oct. 1, 2021, and this past Sept. 30, the program served 109,510 individually delivered meals to clients in the Roanoke Valley and Alleghany Highlands. Just for a little context, that's more than the number of people who reside in Roanoke.

Those low-cost prepared meals help keep elderly people in their own homes or apartments and out of high-cost nursing homes and hospitals. So every dollar spent on Meals on Wheels actually saves money for programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

But there may be some financial storm clouds on the horizon. The extra funding from ARPA will end in September 2024, Boyd said. And the recent deal on the federal debt limit struck by Republicans and Democrats in Washington might have a negative effect even sooner, he said.

Details are still unclear, but "what I’ve heard is there certainly won't be any increases [in funding] and there could be decreases moving forward," Boyd said.

That's why you should support "Let's Give Lunch," the LOA's annual fundraiser and silent auction that happens each June. This year, the event is next Friday, June 16, at North Roanoke Baptist Church, 6402 Peters Creek Road.

Tickets are $20 each and there are three different ways people can participate.

First is the sit-down luncheon and silent auction at the church, for which there will be live entertainment. Second, the LOA will deliver box lunches to workplaces provided the orders come in no later than June 9, which is tomorrow. Third, people can pick up lunches in the event's drive-thru line. The LOA's accepting drive-thru orders that come in by the end of the day Tuesday.

The box lunches have a cold-cut sandwich (or a portabella mushroom option), potato salad, fresh fruit, a brownie and water at a sit-down event at the church.

The silent auction features dozens of different donated items and experiences. One is a framed P. Buckley Moss print of her painting, "Under Time's Spell." Another is a night, including breakfast for two, at the Hotel Roanoke.

Also up for auction are gift cards to Fresh Market, Kroger, Walmart, golf outings, massages, and meals at area restaurants such as Blaze Pizza, Cucci's Pizzeria and Starbucks.

All of the proceeds from the lunch and auction will support Meals on Wheels and the volunteers who help them daily.

Dan Casey (540) 981-3423

[email protected]

@dancaseysblog

• What: An annual fundraiser by the Local Office on Aging that supports Meals on Wheels, which delivers nutritious meals, Monday through Friday, to needy housebound senior citizens in their homes and apartments,.

• When: Friday June 16, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• Where: North Roanoke Baptist Church, , 6402 Peters Creek Road.

• Tickets: $20 per person.

• To order tickets online: www.loaa.org/events/letsgivelunch

More info: Local Office on Aging, (540) 345-0451.

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