By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Two organizations that help seniors in the northern suburbs are coming together. Operation Northern Comfort, a Liverpool-based nonprofit that provides labor and donations for local homes and other projects, has donated $5,000 to North Area Meals on Wheels.
The monetary donation is unique in that ONC’s helping hand usually comes in the form of delivering furniture, building ramps and even constructing new homes. ONC’s donation matches a $5,000 donation to NAMOW from Driver’s Village.
“I think there’s strength in numbers. This is more people to advocate for seniors. Sometimes we’re the only people they see every day,” said Jennifer Covert, program director for NAMOW. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Last month, the Onondaga County Office for Aging announced that it is unable to fund new Meals on Wheels applicants until at least April 2017. NAMOW and other MOW agencies in the county have established a waiting list for new applicants, but NAMOW board member Dave Robinson told the North Syracuse Village Board of Trustees that NAMOW will not turn anyone away.
After hearing of NAMOW’s plight, ONC board member Dave George brought the idea of making a donation to the ONC board of directors.
“All the hands went up. … Everybody was very responsive at the meeting once I made them aware,” George said. “It’s a way for us to help people who wouldn’t have any recourse.”
George said both NAMOW and ONC assist seniors and other Central New Yorkers in need with quality of life and safety issues. He added that NAMOW’s volunteer drivers can be the “eyes and ears” for ONC, spotting potential safety issues that ONC volunteers can rectify.
NAMOW Board of Directors President Bob Graves said his drivers already are reporting poor living conditions of their clients; now, NAMOW clients who need repairs on their homes have somewhere to turn.
“We had a situation a while back where it was difficult to get to the lady because her porch was broken,” Graves said. “We’ve just got to find work for [ONC].”
NAMOW charges self-pay clients $8 for two meals, but the organization’s production cost is $12 for those meals. ONC’s $5,000 donation is roughly equivalent to 500 meals.
“Our direct contribution helps a lot of people — that’s a lot of meals,” George said.
NAMOW projects that its 250 volunteers will have prepared and delivered more than 110,000 meals for senior citizens and other people in need in northern Onondaga County by the end of 2016.
Graves said ONC’s donation could be the beginning of a “mutually beneficial” partnership.
“Both of our missions have to do with the quality of life of our seniors in the community,” Graves said.
Related: North Syracuse Seniors donate ‘Secret Santa’ funds to NAMOW
