Meals-on-Wheels and more |
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For 5,000 seniors, lunch at a Loaves & Fishes Centers meal site or delivered by its Meals-on-Wheels program is a daily key to physical and social health. For volunteers like George Scheffler, it’s more.  George is a big, outdoorsy looking guy with a ready smile. Watch him laughing and teasing with the staff at the Elm Court Loaves & Fishes Center in downtown Portland. You might not get the impression that not long ago, George’s home was a hidden campsite at Portland International Airport. “I shouldn’t have been homeless, but I was,” George says. “I didn’t have to be, but I’d just gotten divorced, my mother had died and I didn’t want to be around people.” George says this amidst the hubbub of activity and the steady murmur of conversation at the Elm Court Loaves & Fishes Center in downtown Portland. There’s the occasional clatter of knife and fork against plate, but mostly you hear people sounds: conversation, laughter. Food brings people to this and 30 other Loaves & Fishes Centers meal sites in Multnomah, Washington and Clark counties. Five thousand meals, five days a week, delivered from a central kitchen in Multnomah Village. Loaves & Fishes Centers is a nonprofit, secular organization that serves hot noon meals to all comers 60 and older. Age is the only requirement. There is no charge, but donations are gladly accepted. Loaves & Fishes Centers also run the local Meals-on-Wheels program, delivering meals to seniors who are unable to get out of the house. But food is only part of Loaves & Fishes Centers. Social contacts, connection with other resources and life enrichment are all part of the package. “A lot of seniors are very isolated,” says Julie Piper Finley, Loaves and Fishes Centers’ media relations coordinator. “For a lot, it’s not the food. It’s meeting the other people.” For the homebound, the Meals-on-Wheels driver may be the only person they’ll see all day. “That driver really does provide connection to the world outside,” Julie says. “We have some very frail people. That delivery driver can see them every day. That check can be very important.” With the Meals-on-Wheels driver often the only contact, it’s not unusual for drivers to help change light bulbs, or to be the first to recognize signs of deteriorating health. And there are the connections to other services, both for the homebound and for those who come to the meal centers. “While we don’t provide those services, we pretty much know everyone who does,” Julie says. Like Store to Door of Oregon, a shopping service for those who are over 65 and unable to get out of their homes. Like county case managers. Like Northwest Pilot Project, a nonprofit that provides housing services for seniors ages 55 and older who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. That’s the organization that helped George turn his life around. For most of his life, George was independent. Sometimes stubbornly so. Legally blind since birth without glasses and qualified for assistance, he chose instead to spend a lifetime working. And not just at easy jobs. Originally from small-town Montana, George preferred rugged work, including fishing commercially in some of Alaska’s best fishing waters—and some of the most hazardous. But when a back injury ended that work and family setbacks mounted. Dispondent, homelessness seemed to George to be a viable choice. A friend told him to come to Portland, a place he’d never lived. Living outdoors is easier in Portland than in Bristol Bay, Alaska, or Libby, Montana. And there are nice places to camp out by the airport if you can elude the airport security. (That memory still makes George smile.) Then one day a ride on the MAX train to downtown Portland started George on a different track. The road back. Northwest Pilot Project helped George find some low-cost housing. It happened to be a few blocks from Elm Court Loaves & Fishes Center, where he was happy to find a meal, and more. “They sat me down and gave me food, treated me like a celebrity,” George says. “And I’ve been paying them back ever since.” The Elm Court Center is like a second home now. No; more like a family room. Back surgery makes it easier to work, and George volunteers there seven days a week because it is family. And the staff and the regular diners are all part of it.  Elm Court is different than most Loaves & Fishes Centers, Julie says. Most meal sites are gathering places for the seniors who live close. But Elm Court is also a place for homeless seniors and an important conduit to connect these exceptionally isolated seniors with other service providers and other people. “It’s not just the free meal,” says volunteer Carla Shuey. “A lot of the benefit is just having other people around.” For Carla and George and the other 450 volunteers a week (7,500 a year) that keep Loaves & Fishes Centers going, the work is a reward. Carla was a bank loan processor until getting snared in the economic downturn. She lost her job, but left with a decent severance package. “I decided to take the summer off,” Carla says. “But I didn’t want to just goof off. I wanted to do something worthwhile. So I started volunteering here.” Five or more hours a day, three days a week, she packs coolers with the lunches for Meals-on-Wheels. If they are short a driver, she’ll deliver as well. “To see the people the meals are going to, that’s the most rewarding aspect, and also the most heart wrenching,” Carla says. “It’s the part I most enjoy.” Carla had planned to volunteer through September. “Now here it is October and I’m still here,” she says. “I got so caught up that I’m stringing it out as long as I can. I look forward to coming in.” Loaves & Fishes Centers gets some funding from the federal government, some from contributions, some from fundraisers. But its life’s blood is the team of volunteers. The volunteers include individuals like George and Carla. Companies like Con-way, CH2M HILL and New Seasons Market, whose volunteers drive routes right from their offices. Service clubs like Rotary and Kiwanis. More are always needed. “Just do it for one day,” Carla says. “Especially if you drive a route, once you see the good you’re doing for people, you get sucked in.” |
The health consequences of senior hungerAn excerpt from The Causes, Consequences and Future of Senior Hunger in America; a study conducted by the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research and Iowa State University. We used data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to examine the health consequences of hunger for Americans over the age of 60. After controlling for other risk factors for poor health we find that seniors experiencing some form of food insecurity are:
Volunteers make it happen The vibrant, beating heart of Loaves & Fishes Centers are its volunteers. More than 450 people every day help prepare and deliver meals at the centers and deliver Meals-On-Wheels to seniors whose frailty makes it impossible for them to come to a meal center. To find out more about volunteering, visit the Loaves & Fishes Centers web site. Meals-On-Wheels statewideMeals-On-Wheels is administered by independent organizations around the country, including these in Oregon:
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