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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Houston Meals on Wheels seeks drivers

Some homebound seniors in Houston County only get one meal a day. Many times, Meals on Wheels provides that meal.

“I’m a bleeding heart,” said Myndee Dement, who works as a part-time administrative assistant for the Houston County Council on Aging Meals on Wheels. Some of the people Meals on Wheels serves only have the one meal at lunch that the group brings, she said.

“Sometimes it’s the only human contact they have all day,” Dement said.

Right now, Meals on Wheels serves 148 people in Houston County. Drivers keep those people fed, and the need for drivers is great, said Kenny Weaver, the group’s executive director.

The group currently has more than 100 drivers, but only about half are regulars, Dement said in an e-mail.

“I don’t think we could have too many” drivers, she said. “Cause the more we have, the more we could relieve others that we overuse right now.”

In addition, 89 homebound seniors in Houston are on a waiting list. Meals on Wheels is seeking more funds through grants and fund raising to be able to bring meals to them, Dement said.

Meals on Wheels recipients fall into three categories: those who pre-pay, those who are free and those who are Middle Georgia Regional Commission-funded clients, Weaver said.

In Bibb County, the Meals on Wheels waiting list is a little more than 200 seniors, according to Winnie Henton, director of Meals on Wheels of Macon and Bibb County. More than 120 volunteers and staff members serve about 930 clients, she said.

They could use a few more drivers to fill in during the holidays, she said.

Last year alone, Henton said, the Macon facility served 323,000 meals.

“There is a great need,” Henton said, “but (it’s) also a great pleasure.”

Volunteer Al Richardson has been a driver for Houston County Meals on Wheels since 1992, when he retired from civilian work at Robins Air Force Base.

He is also the treasurer for the group.

About a month ago, Richardson, who has a Meals on Wheels volunteer sign on his red truck, said a gentleman bought his gas just because he was a volunteer.

“I was a victim of a random act of kindness,” Richardson said. “We just need more of that going on in the world.”

Debra Stewart, whose mother Mary Graham receives the daily hot lunch, said Graham “looks forward to it every day.”

Meals on Wheels recently presented Graham with a birthday basket made by the Warner Robins Civitan Club. Graham’s other daughter, Hope Tarpley, got her involved in the program a few years ago.

To be eligible for Meals on Wheels, clients have to be 60 or older, homebound, under a doctor’s care and unable to prepare their own meals.

The Meals on Wheels foundation gets its money from the United Way, corporate donations, grants and individual donations.

Weaver said individual donations are down. There is a $30,000 deficit in Houston County so far this year, he said.

“Most everyone’s been hit,” he said.

The Houston County program is applying to receive funding from Community Care Services Program Medicaid and then Source Medicaid, Weaver said. It’s a process that can take as long as two years.

Once the program receives Medicaid approval, it plans to move to a new location that will allow it grow. The approval also will allow Houston County Meals on Wheels to serve Medicaid clients.

The Bibb County Meals on Wheels has been qualified for the Medicaid programs since its inception back in the early 1980s. About half of the clients the the group serves are Medicaid clients, Henton said.

For more information or to volunteer, contact the Houston County Council on Aging at 328-6070.

To contact writer Angela Woolen, call 923-5650.