Meals on Wheels celebrates its 21st birthday next week

Ken Johnston
Editor

Next week is Meals on Wheels Week in Ontario and locally the organization will be celebrating a birthday.

In Rainy River the Meals on Wheels (MOW) started on October 6, 1982 after a number of citizens worked hard to organize it. The late Joyce Armistead was the first coordinator of it. It was later taken over by Iris Marquis who ran it for many years. Then Joan Aikenhead took over and in the past several months there has been two coordinators. Leanne Dixon ran it until August 2, 2001 when Florence Newman took over.

Newman explained that the main thrust of the program is to help seniors remain in their homes longer in life. By providing hot meals for senior citizens who are unable to cook for themselves makes that a bit easier.

To use Meals on Wheels one has to be at least 60 years of age. At present there are about 7 deliveries each day. The meals are ordered from Mom’s Restaurant each day and are delivered by a vast network of volunteers. Each recipient of a meal pays a fee of $6.25.

That is where most of Newman’s time is spent; organizing the list of volunteers for the year. Many local groups take turns at volunteering for the better part of the year. The RR Hospital Auxiliary, Legion, Legion Ladies Aux., Lions Club, Forest Women’s Institute, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Women’s League, United Church Women, Anglican Church, Covenant Church and many other individuals fill the bulk of the list. However Newman said that there are three months where she has a tough time filling slots.

“From November to the end of January volunteers are needed.”

Newman is very grateful to the groups that volunteer and noted that it takes about 20-30 minutes to do the deliveries per day and hopes that other groups or individuals would be willing to give some of their time to help out.

The MOW office is located in the basement of the RR Clinic and has office hours of 11 am to 1 pm on weekdays. People wishing to volunteer or to take advantage of the service can call 852-3872.

Newman is also in charge of a loan cupboard that loans out walkers, tub attachments, bed pans, neck collars, crutches, etc. A non-refundable deposit of $5 for 3 months use is charged with the money being used to replace or maintain items when necessary.