Meals on Wheels - Overview

BACKGROUND OF MEALS ON WHEELS OF NATRONA COUNTY

In December 1970, Mabel Marvel invited representatives of various service groups in the city to a luncheon. The group decided to seek incorporation and Title III Federal funding so that meal delivery could begin. Rev. A.H. Grannan gave the first donation to help get Meals On Wheels started and the Salvation Army donated a small office for temporary use.

For the initial three months of operation, meals were prepared at Natrona County Memorial Hospital. Then, for almost another three months, the meals were prepared in the kitchen of the First Baptist Church. During their time at First Baptist Church, Meals On Wheels was busy remodeling the kitchen at Winter Memorial Presbyterian Church. Winter Memorial Presbyterian Church took Meals On Wheels as its mission and the kitchen with all its sundries made its home there for fifteen years. On January 31, 1986, Meals On Wheels moved into its new and present home, located at 1760 East 12th Street. This new building, planned and built specifically to lease to MOW, was funded by the 1 % Sales Tax, and is owned by the City of Casper. Its kitchen was designed and built with the capacity for preparing up to 300 meals each day. By 2004, Meals On Wheels was delivering approximately 400 meals each day. Because of the increasing demand for home delivered meals for our county's burgeoning homebound elderly population, we expanded and renovated our facility at 1760 E. 1ih St., to accommodate the preparation and delivery of up to 1,200 meals each day. The facility's square footage was nearly doubled with the 2004 remodel and expansion.. The project was funded as follows:

75% 1 % Sales Tax

25% donations that Meals On Wheels raised from private contributions of individuals, businesses, and grantors.

Directors following Mabel Marvel's lead were Evelyn Key, Sabra Moore, and Mary Jewell Duncan, Jo Maxfield-Cox, and Jamie Loveall.

Meals are delivered to the homes of senior citizens, convalescents, and persons of any age who are home-bound and have difficulty preparing meals for themselves. There is no age requirement and no financial limitation on individuals needing the service. Donations from senior recipients range from nothing to $3.25 per meal, depending on ability to pay. Donations from non-seniors range from nothing to $5.00 per meal based on their medical needs and individual circumstances. Average recipient donation per meal is $0.67. Medicaid Waiver pays $5.25 for each qualified recipient meal (approximately 30% of our meals). This brings the average receipt per meal to approximately $2.00.

Meals On Wheels of Natrona County has benefited from the Title III C-2 Older Americans Act Federal funding it has received since its inception. Other funding sources include United Way, service organizations within the community, gifts and memorials from individuals, gifts of meat from 4H and FFA animals that were purchased and donated by individual buyers at the Central Wyoming Fair and Rodeo, donations from recipients, and proceeds from special projects, as well as contributions from the Meals On Wheels Foundation.

THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MOW

The service is primarily targeted to meet the needs of the elderly and homebound citizens of Natrona County. Each recipient qualifies for the program by a screening program mandated by the federal and Wyoming state governments. Some individual recipients are sensitive about being judged as to their eligibility by volunteers. Please guard against making comments about a recipient's circumstances which may make him/her feel uncomfortable about receiving meals. REMEMBER: they have qualified and must continue to meet eligibility requirements to remain on the MOW program.

You'll find a wealth of information about the history and operation of MOW in the following pages. During fiscal year 2007, MOW delivered an average of 554 daily meals to its recipients. We delivered a total of 158,086 !! Forty percent of our meal recipients require special therapeutic diets. Around 640 weekend meals to 190 of our recipients are delivered along with the regular meal each Friday. These are for weekend meals. Our current volunteer force includes 488 community minded citizens. What a fine group you've chosen to be part of. Thank you and welcome to MOW.

PHYSICAL FACILITY DESCRIPTION

The Meals On Wheels facility is located at 1760 East 12th Street in Casper. The building was built by the City of Casper and became operational in 1986 specifically for MOW. It is leased from the city and is comprised of a kitchen, volunteer/staff social area, and an office area. The kitchen area consists of a dry food storage room, two walk-in coolers as well as two walk-in freezers, one walk-in beverage cooler and an office for the Kitchen Manager. Also included in the kitchen are a dish room, salad preparation area, bakery preparation area, braiser, steamer, gas stoves, ovens, microwave, convection ovens and a serving area, in addition to the many and varied smaller pieces of kitchen equipment necessary to prepare and serve entrees and fully balanced, hot meals. If you'd like to tour the kitchen, tell the office staff. You are not only welcome to tour the kitchen, we encourage you to do so.

ADMINISTRATION OF MEALS ON WHEELS

Meals On Wheels is staffed by an Executive Director, Administrative Assistant, Finance/HR Manager, Receptionist/Assistant, Client Services Coordinator, Dietary Manager, Dietary Aides, a Custodian and a Foundation Development Director.

The function of the Executive Director is to implement the policy and procedures of the organization through day to day management of its activities. Policies and procedures are established by the 15 member Board of Directors which meets monthly. A list of Board and Committee members is available at MOW office.

Preparing a monthly menu for approval of the State of Wyoming Division on Aging, the Meals On Wheels' Dietary Manager oversees food preparation by the kitchen staff. Diets for diabetics and those who need salt-free, bland, mechanically soft, cardiac, vegetarian, renal or other therapeutic regimes, as ordered by referring health care workers or dictated by personal needs, are prepared according to correct dietary specifications. Meals On Wheels has made arrangements to contract with a Registered Dietitian on an as needed basis.