Meals-On-Wheels Program Needs Your Help!

This holiday season you can give a gift that will make a real difference in the life of an older person in Somerville or Cambridge. Your donation to the Meals-On-Wheels program at Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services (SCES) will help to ensure that every older person who needs a meal can get one. This year the number of meals we serve through this program has risen by 10 percent, and yet funding is stagnant as we all face cutbacks in these hard economic times.

Each weekday, over 600 homebound older people in our community rely on us to provide a hot, nutritious lunch delivered to their doorstep. Bag suppers and frozen meals are also provided for those who cannot prepare an evening or weekend meal.

The Meals-On-Wheels Program provides more than just food. It offers an important opportunity for contact with the outside world. For many older people, the meal delivery provides the only chance of the day to talk with another person. It also offers an important safety check. Each year Meals-On-Wheels drivers are responsible for saving a number of older people in distress. This December, SCES will make sure that our most vulnerable neighbors are not neglected, by personally delivering festive holiday bags filled with groceries, fruit, and a holiday card.

However, SCES needs your help to carry on our work. Limited government funding makes it difficult to meet the demand for Meals-On-Wheels. A $15 donation will purchase three meals for a person in need. A gift of $25 will help SCES deliver 5 meals. A $50 donation will purchase 10 meals, and $100 will provide 20 meals!

Please make checks payable to Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services and mail to Meals-On-Wheels Appeal, Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, 61 Medford Street, Somerville, MA 02143. For more information, call (617) 628-2601 ext. 3201 or visit http://www.eldercare.org/ and donate on-line. SCES is a private, not-for-profit agency.