Meals on Wheels still trucking despite soaring fuel costs

The Shawnee Meals on Wheels program is in secure financial condition and in no danger of being discontinued or cut in any way, the director of its sponsor, RSVP, said.
 “Right now, the Shawnee, Oklahoma Meals on Wheels program is in fine shape,” said Thixe Totty, who heads the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), which provides nutritious hot lunches to elderly homebound.
Totty was responding to a barrage of phone calls her office has received from concerned people since a news story out of Charleston, W.Va., appeared July 3, describing severe funding problems many senior nutrition programs across the country are encountering because of soaring food, utilities and gasoline prices.  
“This office has received phone calls assuming we were going to close,” Totty said. “Even with fuel costs rising, the (Shawnee) Meals on Wheels program will be able to continue to provide meals at the same cost to the participants and also pay the state rate mileage to drivers.”
Concern has been expressed by Meals on Wheels participants, home health agencies and others in the Shawnee area, she said, “but due to our present funding, we will continue this program and also we are having growth in participants right now. The funding is appropriate to carry us at this time.”
The Meals on Wheels program is two-fold in that it provides hot nutritious meals to homebound seniors and a smiling face checking on them daily, Totty said.
Thirty-seven people ranging in age from 70 to 95 are recipients of Meals on Wheels. A few are handicapped homebound people, but the majority are homebound seniors, she said.
Forty-two volunteer drivers deliver special diet meals prepared at Unity South Hospital. Regular diet meals are prepared at Liberty Baptist Church daily. Four Meals on Wheels routes originate at Unity South and six at Liberty Baptist.
 “The only time we do not deliver is holidays and if the schools are closed due to bad weather. But we have some drivers who are willing to deliver (at those times) if the family is in real need for a meal,” Totty said.
Eaton Corporation has provided drivers for the Meals on Wheels program for more than 12 years, she said. Personnel from Mays Home Health and Home Integration, a DHS program, also help with the driving.
“Plus we have a number of individuals” who are drivers, Totty said. “Some have done it for years.”
More volunteer drivers and substitute drivers are always needed, however.
“We can always use substitute and regular drivers. If they could only do it one day a week or only once or twice a month would be a great help,” she said.
The program also accept meals scholarships. “If someone comes in and wants to pay a homebound person’s meal cost for a week or even up to a month, they can do so,” Totty said.