COLLEEN CONWAY
Staff Writer
Despite a common belief, Meals on Wheels is not a soup kitchen delivery service. Meals on Wheels has been so successful because it has been willing to cater to different needs of different people. Unlike short-lived Project Angel Food, a program that only catered to AIDS survivors, Meals on Wheels has successfully learned to expand to meet its ever-changing clientele.
This includes serving the lovers of Meals on Wheels clients. They sleep in their beds. They give Meals on Wheels clients some of the only loving interaction they will have most days and Meals on Wheels clients love them so much they have even given up their own food to these lovers.
We’re talking about pets.
“Pets are the only companions that some of the homebound seniors who receive Meals on Wheels have,” Enid A. Borden, CEO of the Meals on Wheels Association of America has said.
The Meals on Wheels Association of America does not only cater to the needy or seniority of America.
As Kevin, supporter of Meals on Wheels West in Santa Monica, says: “Volunteers will go to deliver to seniors in million dollar houses and have the audacity to say that these people should get a reverse mortgage and go into assisted living. They say, look at that million-dollar house, the Cadillac parked out front. I say, ‘Did you also see the grass growing around the tires. When do you think that car last moved? That’s ripping people of their lives; these houses and their things are their memories. It keeps their dignity.”
As the oldest, most respected and trusted deliverer of meals MOWAA works with the Red Cross to also serve people who in general cannot leave their houses to provide for themselves. This might be due to being dismembered in Iraq or because they have been displaced during Hurricane Katrina.
When it comes to planning, Kevin, who requested his last name not be used for this article, believes people have to work in the moment. “Look. Real life is different. You can have an earthquake or flood kit, but when (expletive) happens, all of a sudden you can’t get to the kit, and all of a sudden the car is gone.”
Sometimes close relatives can no longer handle the burden of making sure their parents have been fed during the workday. Meals on Wheels also serves as a way for people to get personal human interaction. Kevin admits, “We give them purpose. In the first week you will see them answer the door, their hair splayed over their face, a mess. Then a few weeks in, you’ll see that they’ve pinned their hair back, put on some makeup, and ask you about your grandson or nephew.”
Volunteers serve as the eyes and ears for Meals on Wheels. They can trigger the red light; sometimes people will walk in and find a person dead or even in a state where there comes a need to call case management, elder abuse, immediate family or even the police.
While people have benefited from MOW by gaining the ability to remain in their homes, their pets were sometimes also in need. Obviously having a pet helps keep loneliness at bay, MOW supporters say. Also, volunteers have noticed that people were feeding their own meals to their pets.
In 2005, Meals on Wheels initiated the program, We All Love Our Pets (WALOP), which seeks to unite and educate Meals on Wheels programs across the country to get involved with pet food programs for senior clients. While many Meals on Wheels programs have their own pet food services, this is the first Meals on Wheels pet plan on a national level.
Due to press coverage, a surge in public interest allowed WALOP to become a “concrete venture.” Since its start WALOP has been featured in the news and several magazines such as Ladies Home Journal.
One WALOP enthusiast from Torrance, who read about the program on Yahoo News wrote: “What a wonderful addition to such a great program. So many of our elderly don’t have, or at least have family close by, that can help them. To have someone provide food for their “next of kin” and possibly most-loved possession not only helps them but enriches their lives.”
One campaign, Season of Suppers, began in November 2006 to support WALOP, a national pet food drive that will continue through the end of the year. Renowned pet hospital Banfield and MOWAA attempted to collect more than 1 million pounds of pet food to be delivered to Meals on Wheels clients’ pets. Monetary contributions were also collected for MOWAA-WALOP. Meals on Wheels has a future goal of providing members with WALOP grants so that they can start and sustain a pet program at their own local Meals on Wheels nutrition program.
When it comes to understanding why people would need Meals on Wheels, even for pets, Kevin says, “This is the human side to tragedy. I used to have problems sympathizing with the Aids epidemic . . . then I said ok, I’m going to get the human side of the story.” When he did, he was touched, and “cried a few times. Sometimes that’s what you have to do.”
05-18-2007