Posted on 11/02/2009 5:16:02 AM PST by markomalley
A month ago, Almeta Whitsett was on the waiting list for Mobile Meals.
With two hip replacements and a husband with Alzheimer’s, the 84-year-old Greensboro woman was finding it harder to cook. She already had someone who came in to clean her house every two weeks.
Now, she has help in the kitchen, too.
Senior Resources of Guilford learned over the summer that it would receive $80,000 in stimulus money from the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The money officially arrives today for Senior Resources.
But since the agency knew that the funds were coming, Whitsett started receiving two hot meals a day, five days a week, in late September for her and her 85-year-old husband, James.
“I don’t have to worry about preparing dinner each day,” Whitsett said. “I prepare a little breakfast for us, and maybe in the evening get us a little sandwich or something. We’ve enjoyed the meals tremendously.”
Oscar Lowe, Mobile Meals program director for Senior Resources, said the list was needed because the economy had turned bad for many.
“I guess that we had 30 or 40 on the waiting list,” said “It was pretty sizeable.”
Senior Resources is funded through the United Way, federal Title III grants and private donations.
But before the stimulus funding was announced, there wasn’t enough money to meet the demand for Mobile Meals as well as to feed the elderly who can make it to one of several centers throughout the county.
The stimulus money allows Senior Resources to avoid building a waiting list for a while.
“We will not start a waiting list until Jan. 1,” said Ellen Whitlock, director of Senior Resources, who said the agency’s overall list has had 232 people cycle through since 2008.
Lowe said it feels good to be able to call people such as the Whitsetts to say, “I believe I can get your meals started.”
But it’s even better to be able to handle the whole waiting list at once.
“When we got the word that we were able to eliminate the waiting list,” Lowe said, “we gave lot of shouts of praise.”
...but how is this is going to a) create jobs, b) improve infrastructure?
Not only that, but what about the hulabaloo about all the constructions jobs created with stimulus money? I wonder if any of these dolts have any idea who’s going to pay these worker’s salaries once the stimulus money is spent?
It doesn’t create a single job.
Like you, I share the sentiment of the delivery of meals to the elderly who are unable to do this for themselves.
But this belongs in the BUDGET. That would make it a continuing program and more likely to be properly and fully funded in the future, instead of running out!
*sheesh*
Or how about lowering my taxes and let me fund it *VOLUNTARILY* through charitable giving.
Or is that too altruistic?
Possibly because these people who have difficulty navigating the kitchen and cooking up a nutritious meal will now be healthier due to better eating habits and because the hot meals are provided to them, their disposable income is increased so they can go out and spend money at local businesses on items other than food, or perhaps make mail order purchases.
Just a guess.
I wonder how many other cities having waiting lists of people in their 80s & 90s who'd appreciated getting hot meals delivered.
Wonder how many hundreds of tax dollars each of those meals costs? After hearing that each “Cash for Clunkers” car cost taxpayers $25,000, counting bureaucratic overhead, one can surmise that it would have been cheaper to hire a cook for this old couple.
(By the way, where are their children? Back in the good old days, parents took care of children when they were young, and children took care of their parents when they were old.)
It won’t do any of that but it might stimulate a second term...
Don’t forget that the $80,000 will pass through a lot of hands before it gets to it’s intended target. Works that way in Mexico. Their lawmakers will fund a project, but the project never gets finished because 1/2 of the funds get skimmed by the time it gets to the end of the pipeline.
I remember when things like this were done by the churches and other charities, though.
Meals on Wheels is still around--that's a government sponsored program, but I believe it's local, not federal government paying for it.
The problem is, I think, that the great B.O.'s presidency in the last hundred days or so has so badly decimated the economy of this country that we are going to hear more and more stories like this.
Where are these people’s families? Or, even neighbors? When I was a kid, Mom always prepared an extra plate for an elderly neighbor lady and her handicapped son. Instead of throwing food down the disposal, make a plate, and freeze it, or give it to someone who needs it. I believe that if people would go back to the old days, where neighbors helped each other, we could get government off our backs.
My siblings and I would never allow our parents to receive meals-on-wheels. We take care of them. I am glad these people are getting decent food, but I don’t like the source.
This is not necessarily directed at you, but it’s ironic that on this conservative website there are always people who will defend and support a socialist program like this because it’s the compansionate thing to do. Who could object to delivering meals to old people? But it still boils down to the same question I have about every government program; how much money should the government take from me, at the point of a gun, to fund this program?
I agree with you, this program should already have adequate monies funded to it, to assist the elderly who are still living in their own homes & apartments, but it looks to me like the organization, "Senior Resources," relies upon private donations and the United Way for much of its operating expenses -- apparently donations are down.
No argument from me.
I’m here is S. Utah and I must say, the LDS community does a great job of doing these kinds of things, without a cent from taxpayers. I’m not LDS, I’m Catholic, but these folks have a terrific system of privately operated and funded social services. We could all take a page out of their book.
It’s my understanding that unpaid volunteers deliver all the meals; I don’t know about the cooks.
So what were these people doing for meals before they started getting free meals on wheels? Obviously they did not starve to death, so that indicates the means to support themselves. What changed to effectively make these people wards of the State??
The question is, why aren’t these Elders paying for this meal service? I understand about caring for the indigent, but this article does not claim that these two are indigent, just old.
Multiply this scenario by thousands like it all over the Country and you can see the problem. The kids are all too busy defaulting on their mortgages, property taxes, and credit cards to have any time to look after their aging parents, and so the Federal Gubment is stepping in to save the day (and feed Grandma and Grandpa)with money borrowed from the Communist Chinese.
Womb to the tomb...
Because dish washing is a great job that’ll get unemployed people back on their feet. :)
Feeding the elderly? That’s horrible.
In my neck of the woods the local churches coordinate vol. delivery drivers from their respective churches, The meals are prepared at a central Council on Aging facility and then distributed through out their largely rural district.
It’s surprising how many elderly people have no family to help them, And many would almost rather starve than ask for help.
Well, stimulous money for Meals on Wheels may not create very many now jobs, but you have to admit, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to let the elderly have food instead of medical care.
The list, ping
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