Meal program set for Jordan Valley
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:40 AM PDT
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| Judy Silva prepares a plate of food Friday at the Nyssa Senior Center. Silva, an employee of Oregon Child Development Coalition, cooks the noon meals for seniors and Meals on Wheels clients in the Nyssa area during the week. |
ONTARIO — Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services is expanding its Meals on Wheels program to Jordan Valley after community members in that southern county town stepped up to the plate and volunteered their assistance to get the service going, Diane Lopez, senior nutrition manager, said.
Sheryl Anderson, Jordan Valley area resident, has volunteered to deliver the meals to the recipients and has made arrangements for picking up the meals from the Nyssa Senior Center, where the food for the Meals on Wheels program in the Nyssa area is prepared, Lopez said.
“Echanis Distributing has volunteered to incorporate delivery of the meals along with their normal delivery,” Lopez said.
Also, the Jordan Valley Health Clinic has donated one of the rooms that is not being used to keep a freezer.
To get the meal delivery program started in Jordan Valley, the Malheur Council on Aging needs a freezer, Lopez said.
Once one is in place, she will go down to Jordan Valley to do the first assessments on the possible Meals on Wheels clients. Anderson, who will accompany Lopez, will do all other assessments as needed, Lopez said.
She began planning last fall to extend Meals on Wheels to Jordan Valley after a resident from there inquired about the possibility.
“We just went there,” Lopez said.
In addition to Meals on Wheels, Malheur Council on Aging sponsors the congregate meals programs for senior citizens at three sites — in Ontario, Vale and Nyssa — which also prepare the meals that are delivered.
In Ontario, that service is contracted with Holy Rosary Medical Center, which provides a Sunday brunch and lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services last fall renewed its association with Oregon Child Development Center, contracting with OCDC to prepare the meals at the Nyssa and Vale senior citizens centers, for both the congregate meals and Meals on Wheels, four days per week.
Those centers also have potlucks one day per week.
Lopez also announced the Meals on Wheels Program had received $15,000 from Festival of Trees, a holiday fund-raiser with the purpose of raising money primarily for Meals on Wheels.
While the senior nutrition programs get federal and state funding, Lopez said that money is not enough.
“We’re still barely getting by,” she said, even with Festival of Trees money, other grants and donations from the seniors themselves. They get a meal, a roll and milk, she said, of the Meals and Wheels recipients.
“We can’t give them a salad or dessert. The money wasn’t there,” she said.
Her agency is charged about $4.75 cents per meal. A suggested donation for seniors for each meal is $3, but is not required.
