COA Meals-On-Wheels reaches new records for clients and volunteers

BRANCH COUNTY — The Commission on Aging hit another milestone for its Meals-On-Wheels program at the end of June, signing up its 195th recipient for the five-day-a-week food service.

COA food service manager Mike Searing said volunteers deliver hot food on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and frozen meals on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The program continues to look for volunteers for the 10 routes that cover the entire county.

Searing said 17 volunteers share the routes, but he could always use more as the list of recipients grows.

For the last six years, retiree Bob Mullally has filled in on routes during the summer in Branch County and drove for a similar program in Charleston, South Carolina during the winter.

On delivery days, Mullally picks up the hot pre-packaged meals at the Burnside Senior Center around 10 a.m. and makes his stops. "For some people, we're their one contact during the day," he said.

Searing said the delivery becomes a wellness check for many.

Mullally said, "The type of reaction you get from these people is gratitude, extreme gratitude. Sometimes it's embarrassing to tell you the truth."

Mark Gray started volunteering a year ago with 21 clients on the 50-mile route he drives on Tuesdays. Other drivers cover Monday and Thursday.

Gray said, "A lot of them are in walkers. A lot of them are on canes. They can't thank us enough for doing it for them."

Volunteer drivers travel 375 miles each delivery day and are reimbursed for mileage.

Recipients are in every township, with 40% concentrated in the Coldwater area.

How it started

COA won a three-year federal/state grant to provide the program and congregate meals in the Burnside Center in October 2022 by pledging to use some of the center's operational millage to supplement the grant.

When COA took over from the Community Action Agency, the program had an average of 75 clients and a long waiting list.

Voters will be asked to renew the 0.4857 millage for four more years on the Aug. 6 ballot. The millage pays for the meals programs and funds the Burnside Center's operation. It would raise $868,017 in 2025 if approved.

COA director Amy Duff said that in the last 12 months through June, COA spent approximately $252,000, about 30% of the millage revenues, on 42,000 home-delivered meals and 11,000 congregate meals at Burnside Center. These also include congregate meals at the Union City Senior Center since Jan. 16.

"Without the millage this and all center operations would mostly end," Duff said.

Meals-On-Wheels qualifications

• You have to be 60 years of age or older for grant funding.
• You have to reside in branch County.
• You must be homebound.

Searing said this means, "Not being able to drive or not able to go to the store to get groceries unassisted or not being able to prepare nutritious meals for yourself is all under that umbrella."

There are some couples. Caregivers can qualify.

The meals

Searing said Milestone Kitchen out of Battle Creek prepares thousands of meals a day for multiple counties. "We've had a great partnership with them for the last year and a half and look to continue."

The nutritionally balanced meals are delivered to Coldwater by 10 a.m. and are packaged hot for Monday, Tuesday, and Friday delivery. Milestone provides frozen re-heatable meals for Wednesdays and Fridays.

All are individually packaged and sorted by color-coded routes.

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COA supplies Milestone Kitchens with all of the coolers, freezer bags, and plugin hot bags to fill for the drivers to deliver to clients.

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com