Gas price crisis
Meals on Wheels program endures under the weight of high gas prices

By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Thursday, July 3, 2008 10:50 AM PDT

Carol Maxwell, Vale, stands outside the Vale Senior Center, where meals for seniors are cooked, with one hot meal that was to be delivered Wednesday. Her husband, Harold Maxwell, is at the wheel of the car.

ONTARIO — The price of gasoline is not only affecting the cost of travel and the price of getting to work, but it is also hitting agencies charged with providing critical services to those in need.

At least one area service — the popular, volunteer Meals on Wheels program — struggles to accomplish its mission when gas prices climb.

 “It’s happening,” Diane Lopez, senior nutrition manager for the Malheur Council on Aging, said regarding the impact of high gas prices. The local Meals on Wheels program is coordinated through the Malheur Council on Aging.

To save money, the local Meals on Wheels program delivers one hot meal per week to clients who live out of town. The rest, up to six, are frozen.

“I have (clients) on Canyon Two and past Canyon Two,” Lopez, who has extended the delivery range outside of area communities to include more people who need the service, said.

ADVERTISEMENT

One person, who lives on Overstreet Road, north of Adrian, also gets the frozen dinners once a week, but that was arranged before the higher gas prices, Lopez said.

The drivers are people who volunteer through their churches that rotate delivering the meals.

For many the Meals on Wheels program remains a stable and soothing fixture every week that includes a social aspect, Lopez said.

For some seniors, the arrival of the meals is their cue that it is time to eat.

“They forget to eat,” Lopez said.

So while there is the effort to be creative and keep the service going, there is the negative side, she noted.

In Vale, the issue is not as big since there are only one or two clients, and only one driver is needed.

For the Payette and Fruitland communities and areas in between, the service is provided through the Payette Senior Citizens Center, where the meals are cooked. About 50 people receive the meals, which are delivered by a paid driver and a volunteer, Leonard Burns, co-chairman of the board of the Payette Senior Citizens, said.

Still, even in the best of times, fiscal issues play a key role for the Payette Meals on Wheels program.

“We need some donations,” Burns said.  “It is tight.”

However, Burns noted that the Payette-area community is supportive.

“The community is really nice to us,” he said.