‘No end in sight’ for Meals on Wheels waitlist

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

To avoid a repeat of last year’s meatball shortage, chefs for North Area Meals on Wheels made 600 meatballs for last Thursday’s annual pasta dinner. While there was plenty of pasta to go around, NAMOW Program Director Jennifer Covert is concerned about the 260 mouths she has to feed in the face of dwindling funds from Onondaga County.

The expiration date of NAMOW’s three-year contract with the county is looming, Covert said, and she is waiting to see if it will be renewed. The county contract subsidizes meal costs for 60 percent of NAMOW’s existing clients, but it has not been able to fund meals for new clients since November 2016.

Salina Supervisor Mark Nicotra joins NAMOW volunteer John Mulcahy for a delivery during March for Meals Week. (submitted photo)

At the time, the Onondaga County Office for Aging told NAMOW they would not be able to help new applicants until April 2017. Coming up on a year after that, Covert said, there is “still no end in sight for the waitlist.”

“[NAMOW is] still subsidizing anyone on the waitlist,” she said.

The bottleneck of waiting clients has eased somewhat over the winter, for better or for worse.

“This time of year, we have a lot of people on hold because they’re sick and in the hospital, and a lot of people pass away this time of year,” Covert said.

With the harsh weather this season, NAMOW has distributed hundreds of blizzard packs to clients. These packs contain nonperishable food for days when snow prevents NAMOW volunteers from making their rounds. But Covert said she won’t let her clients go hungry no matter what the weather does.

“When there’s snow days — if North Syracuse schools close, we have to close — I still come in,” Covert said. “The last time North Syracuse had no school, I didn’t close because I had people to feed.”

Covert is not alone in her quest to feed hungry seniors in the northern suburbs. Last week, community leaders from around NAMOW’s coverage area pitched in to help assemble and deliver meals during “March for Meals Week.” The annual campaign celebrates the anniversary of a 1972 amendment to the Older Americans Act of 1965, which established a nutrition program for senior citizens. March for Meals also raises awareness and funds for MOW programs.

But the biggest helpers of all are NAMOW’s regular volunteers. Covert said they led the charge for the pasta fundraiser on top of their routine volunteer duties.

“We ask so much of our volunteers as it is. We hate to ask them to do more,” she said. “To have almost 300 volunteers and just 10 paid employees — it’s nuts. They run this place.”