Aging volunteers, lack of replacements put Meals on Wheels programs in peril

For about a half-century, Ruth Donnell, 92, and Betty Smith, 89, have packed sandwich lunches and repurposed bread heels to dazzle Freeport Area Meals on Wheels clients with a culinary rarity — homemade bread pudding.

“The reason I do it is to help people who haven’t been able to help themselves,” Donnell said. “We started in the days before there were food banks and other ways of getting meals.”

How long Meals on Wheels programs will continue across the region is uncertain. The ravages of time and lack of new volunteers are placing programs in jeopardy.

Two programs — Kinloch in Lower Burrell and Highlands in Harrison — closed this year primarily because they didn’t have enough volunteers. That leaves Westmore­land County and the Alle-Kiski Valley with about a dozen programs in all.

Meals on Wheels serves as a significant lifeline for many seniors. The programs are invaluable to immobile residents on fixed incomes, and volunteers who deliver meals perform unofficial welfare checks on recipients.

Each program is an independent nonprofit paid for through meal fees and donations, so what each offers varies. But often it involves hot and cold meals — for as low as $2.50 per meal — delivered several days a week. Some programs deliver daily.

The local programs receive no grants or government subsidies, making logistics challenging.

Jamie Nee, director of social work at Allegheny Health Network, said the Kinloch and Highlands programs were big losses.

“Meals on Wheels programs are very important as we transition patients home from the hospital,” Nee said. “Not having them available in the Alle-Kiski Valley area is a significant loss.”

Some programs steady, some shaky

Not all Meals on Wheels programs are challenged by an unsteady number of volunteers.

The Latrobe Meals on Wheels program is getting along fine but could stand to have more drivers, said Kay Elder, manager of the program that serves Latrobe, Youngstown and parts of Derry.

The program works with Excela Health Latrobe Hospital, which prepares hot meals that volunteers deliver. The program pays the hospital for the meals at a discounted rate of $3 a meal. Churches that provide lunches give them out for free.

“It’s a wonderful thing Latrobe does,” Elder said. “Without the help of the hospital, the program wouldn’t be viable.”

The Latrobe program serves 48 clients at any given time and has a waiting list of four to five months.

“We’re all volunteers,” Elder said. “We get up early in the morning to make sandwiches five days a week. That’s all you can ask,” she said.

Elder acknowledges volunteerism is not as strong as it used to be.

“Our church crews that make our sandwiches are getting quite elderly, and it’s harder to make those sandwiches,” Elder said.

Growing need

Demand for delivered meals to seniors on a budget is only going to grow, experts said.

“It is imperative that we, as a nation, increase our support for Meals on Wheels programs if seniors are not to be left behind, hungry and alone,” said Susan Waldman, spokeswoman for Meals on Wheels America, a national nonprofit based in Arlington, Va., that works with more than 5,000 community-based, independent meal programs.

Nationally, demographic projections before covid-19 forecast the number of seniors in America would double by 2060, Walden said.

“It’s very clear that we need to dramatically increase the investments in the proven Meals on Wheels solution to see the nation through the coming decades,” she said.

While many programs cite issues with keeping a steady stream of volunteers, some programs that draw volunteers from multiple church congregations aren’t feeling the crunch.

The Freeport Area Meals program was founded nearly 50 years ago, with many churches participating by offering cooking crews.

“We don’t have just one person or two people to rely on. We have seven churches who cook,” said Sally Coyne, director of the Freeport area program covering residents in Freeport, Buffalo Township, South Buffalo, Slate Lick, Saxonburg, West Winfield and Cabot. “The responsibility was spread out.”

That’s not the case for communities in the Fox Chapel Area School District.

“We need clients, volunteers and money,” said Sue Ellen Nugent, president of the board and a volunteer for the Aspinwall program serving most communities in the school district. “We’re still viable. But we’re constantly changing — clients’ health can change, then there’s death and people moving to senior living. But we’re still maintaining.”

One of the reasons clients return or new ones come on board is the quality of food, she said.

“It’s homemade every day, and we don’t charge for delivery,” she said. “People get to know our drivers and delivery people. There is a quality of dedication among the volunteers.

“The sad part is some people don’t have many options.”

Volunteers are always needed at the Vandergrift program, said Sarabeth Stopansky, president of the program’s board.

“We’re not like Kinloch or Highlands — we are not in any way closing,” she said. Kinloch donated 150 to 200 pounds of its canned vegetables when it closed in late July.

Stopansky is 65 and her husband is 69 — and they are among the youngest of the volunteers.

Currently, the program has 45 volunteers and about 50 clients in Vandergrift, East Vandergrift, North Vandergrift and part of Parks, West Leechburg and Alle­gheny Township.

“Twenty years from now, it will be a miracle if the program is still around unless more people are willing to volunteer,” said Nancy McGraw, 74, board secretary.

The Vandergrift program’s client and volunteer numbers are down a bit from 10 to 20 years ago, despite it offering fresh, homemade meals on weekdays at $3 a day.

But alternative choices exist, McGraw said. Some health insurance companies offer coverage for delivered meals for medically qualified members. There are private businesses such as Mom’s Meals that deliver meals in the region.

The Delmont Meals on Wheels — with 56 clients — has a steady stream of volunteers, said Lori Harr, who handles the intake of clients. The program covers residents in Delmont, Mamont, Trees Mills, Hoffman Heights, Slickville and part of Washington Township.

“We’ve stayed pretty steady,” Harr said. The program works with parishioners of local churches, which fortifies the ranks of volunteers. “We lose volunteers, but somebody steps up.”

Slammed by the pandemic

Meals on Wheels programs were slammed with increased demand during the covid-19 pandemic, according to national and local reports from program officers.

Nationally, the increased demand stressed programs with limited numbers of volunteers, said Waldman, the national organization’s spokeswoman. Some programs closed, while others consolidated with other organizations, she said.

Local county Area Agency on Aging programs experienced a surge in demand for delivered hot meals.

In Allegheny County, pre-pandemic, 3,284 customers were served home-delivered meals in fiscal year 2018-19 compared with 3,616 customers in fiscal year 2021-22, a 10% increase.

In Westmoreland County, there was a 24% increase in county-­delivered meals to seniors, from 493 customers in fiscal year 2018-19 to 612 in fiscal year 2021-22.

“The growing senior population in Allegheny County and the fact that our meal programs received much more exposure during covid due to the overwhelming need to get food to people’s homes is likely the source of those numbers,” said Jennifer Baker, supervisor for senior centers and nutrition programs for the Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging.

Although covid numbers have started to stabilize, Allegheny County’s meal programs haven’t returned to pre-covid numbers, she said.

In Westmoreland County, Carrie Nelson, an administrator with the Area Agency on Aging in Greensburg, said it’s difficult to comment on the trends in demand for home-delivered meals but said there are many older adults in the community with food insecurity.

“The Meals on Wheels programs play a crucial role in combating that,” she said.

When covid hit, the national Meals on Wheels nonprofit saw demand double, Walden said.

“Together, these circumstances indicate that Meals on Wheels programs, already struggling to keep up with demand, will have their work cut out for them over the next few decades,” Walden said.

More than 1 in 5 Pennsylvanians are expected to be 65 or older by 2030, according to American Community Survey estimates.

More options

Where there isn’t a Meals on Wheels program, AHN uses its AHN Healthy Food Centers in some hospitals where patients with a medical referral can pick up prepacked boxes of fresh produce and nutritious items.

“We have had to become creative to address the needs of our patients and families in the Valley,” Nee said.

Other programs include UPMC for Life Complete Care. Home-­delivered meals are available after an inpatient hospital stay, observation stay or skilled nursing facility stay.

Humana At Home offers meals from a Humana vendor that are delivered by FedEx or UPS.

With delivery services such as DoorDash and Grubhub, there are many options — but at a price.

“Those who can afford nutritious meals and have the mobility to get out and shop or the ability to stand over a stove and cook can be well served by some of these other options,” Waldman said.

Other programs, such as meal programs at senior centers, target seniors struggling with nutrition and social contact and continue to be important, she said.

Chugging along

The scene is similar every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at Freeport United Methodist Church.

Aromas waft from the social hall, where a cadre of volunteers cook, organize and deliver hot and cold meals to 43 local residents.

On a recent Friday, breaded pork chops, parsley buttered noodles and apple crisp — all homemade — were paired with a large lunch bag stuffed with a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, bread, hard-boiled egg, banana, homemade cookies, cereal and graham crackers — all for $3.

One client who was celebrating a birthday received a gift bag with a card and homemade miniature birthday cake.

Donnell and Smith are parishioners at the church.

The program is not as busy as when the pair started nearly a half-century ago, Smith said.

“That was before there were a lot of nursing homes like we have now,” she said. “More people in the high-rises go to the senior centers for their meals.”

But she added, “There’s still a need.”