Official COVID-19 Update from Meals on Wheels of Wake County
COVID-19 RESPONSE FUND: WAKE COUNTY SENIORS NEED IMMEDIATE SUPPORT
Meals on Wheels serves an incredibly vulnerable population and is often the primary lifeline delivering so much more than just a meal, especially in uncertain times. Across North Carolina, we are monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation, taking precautions to protect these high-risk individuals, and preparing for increased demand and new ways of delivering services.
Wake County seniors need your support now, more than ever before. Your contribution will ensure they are able to access a healthy, nutritious meal during this unprecedented crisis. Donated funds will replenish food supplies, subsidize additional transportation and personnel costs, enable tech-based efforts to check in on isolated seniors and support timely distribution of science-based information needed to ensure safe care for all.
Food Runners Collaborative employee tests positive for COVID-19
For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2020
Press Advisory: Meals on Wheels of Wake County Executive Director Alan Winstead is available for interviews. Call 919-880-8364; e-mail alan@wakemow.org
On Tuesday, June 9, 2020 Meals on Wheels of Wake County learned that an employee of Food Runners Collaborative, a partner company with Meals on Wheels that prepares the meals, tested positive for COVID-19. This employee worked in the kitchen area and was not symptomatic while at work. Their last day of work was June 5, 2020. They did not have any direct contact with Meals on Wheels clients or volunteers. Food Runners co-workers who were in direct contact with the affected person are in self-quarantine. Additionally, Wake County and State of NC Public Health gave guidance that coronavirus is not transmitted via the food and that there is no evidence that it has been transmitted through the frozen plates.
Christina Ogden, Executive Director of Food Runners Collaborative, is working with public health officials to make sure that the building conditions and staff are in compliance with the latest coronavirus prevention guidelines. On Wednesday, June 10, 2020 the building was closed and was completely sanitized. The staff of Food Runners Collaborative and Meals on Wheels of Wake County will continue to follow safety guidelines such as temperature checks, wearing masks and gloves, and using sanitizers. The health and safety of our staff and clients is our top priority.
Alan Winstead
Executive Director
919-880-8364
Donations & Volunteers Needed to Make Face Masks for Older Adults
Meals on Wheels is grateful to all individuals and organizations willing to help our vulnerable seniors, volunteers, and team members during the COVID-19 crisis. With the expected surge in coronavirus-related cases, Meals on Wheels is taking critical steps to ensure the health safety and well-being of all those we serve.
Below is a list of opportunities for creating masks for our seniors, donating supplies and instructions on how to make a gift to support COVID-19 related care. Contributions from donors like you ensure we can continue to provide the highest-quality care to our older adult community during this unprecedented time.
Create Fabric Face Masks
Meals on Wheels will continue to accept donations of masks sewn by volunteers with their own materials. Check out example steps below for making your own via Pins & Needles:
To Mail Your Masks
If you would like to mail your masks to our main office, please mail them to:
Meals on Wheels of Wake County
Attention: COVID-19 Mask Challenge
1001 Blair Dr. Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27603
Mask Drop-Off Location
Finished masks can be dropped off on Mondays from 10am-2pm at our main office location. Please email sharon@wakemow.org or call 919-256-3866 prior to your arrival. Until further notice, our building remains locked to best ensure the safety of our staff, volunteers and clients. We will meet you outside, at a safe distance, to collect your donation.
For any additional questions regarding mask-making, please email information@wakemow.org
Donate Supplies
Meals on Wheels is grateful for the community’s interest in helping our older adult population. See below for the list of accepted donations. To coordinate supply drop-offs, please email information@wakemow.org
Personal Protective Equipment
- Masks: Procedure masks (also referred to as isolation masks or earloop mask) and cloth masks.
- Hand sanitizer: Must be at least 70 percent alcohol.
- Disinfecting wipes/cleaners: Clorox and Lysol wipes are acceptable. Any other cleaners must be on the COVID-19 approved list generated by the EPA.
- Gloves: Unopened boxes of non-latex gloves.
Make a Gift Online
With the expected surge in coronavirus-related cases, Meals on Wheels is taking critical steps to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all those we serve. We encourage you to support our COVID-19 Response Fund. Donated funds will replenish food supplies, subsidize additional transportation and personnel costs, enable tech-based efforts to check in on isolated seniors and support timely distribution of science-based information needed to ensure safe care for all.
April 20 Update
April 21 will mark our third frozen meal delivery day and we are happy to report that all is going very well. We are preparing 7 frozen meals per person. So our wonderful volunteers are now delivering about 9,800 meals on one day. In addition to our homebound clients, our congregate dining room clients are also able to receive the box of 7 frozen meals. We had a tremendous response for volunteers to make the deliveries, and we are grateful for all of you who are out there on our behalf.
Because of the current guidelines, all volunteers need to have gloves and masks when making the deliveries. We have plenty of gloves, but continue to need MASKS. If you are making them, you can deliver them to 1001 Blair Dr., Raleigh. We are unable to pick them up.
We are extremely grateful for all of our generous donors who are sending in donations to help us with the additional costs of preparing 9,800+ plus meals every week. We received emergency COVID-19 grants from Meals on Wheels America, We Work for Health Foundation, Coastal Credit Union, Biogen Foundation, West Raleigh Rotary, Pro-Active Controls Group, CVS, and Genworth Foundation.
March 23 Update
As of March 23, we have all the volunteers needed for the Tuesday, March 31 delivery date. We are grateful for the outpouring of support. We will continue to post updates and will post any future volunteer needs in the upcoming weeks. Volunteers signed up for the March 31 delivery will hear about the time to pick up the meals from their site managers. It will more than likely be in the morning and the deliveries need to be made as quickly as possible.
March 20 Update
March 20 was our last hot meal delivery day for the foreseeable future. Starting March 23 we are suspending our hot meal delivery program.
During the week of March 23 we will transition to a frozen meal delivery plan. We will attempt to deliver 5 frozen meals once a week to all of our 1400 clients.
The first day for this delivery is Tuesday, March 31. We do need a lot of volunteer drivers that day. The general plan is to meet at a specific time in the parking lots of our pick-up sites. Each volunteer will receive no more than 8 boxes of frozen meals to deliver to clients. The pick-up and deliveries need to be accomplished as quickly as possible to ensure that the meals stay frozen, so you need to be on time.
If you are a current volunteer, please contact your site manager to let her know if you can help that day. If you are not a current volunteer, and would like to help, you must fill out the volunteer application at https://www.wakemow.org/volunteer-application-mow-wake-county by March 26.
Volunteers for the Blair Dr. pick up location are already filled and in place. Locations in the remaining county sites are still open.
We will update you as often as we can during the next several days. With your continued help we will be able to provide our elderly clients the meals that they so desperately need.
March 19, 2020
Due to the serious developments surrounding the Coronavirus outbreak, Meals on Wheels of Wake County has found it necessary to make some adjustments to our home-delivered meal program as well as our congregate dining programs.
Public health conditions are changing rapidly and we will implement the following changes:
- Friday, March 20 is the last day for Meals on Wheels daily hot meal service to both congregate sites and home-delivered.
- We will suspend meal service between Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 27 for both home-delivered and congregate dining rooms.
- During the week of March 30, we are planning a one time delivery of 5 frozen meals for all congregate and home delivered participants.
- As of March 20, volunteers are no longer needed for daily meal delivery, however, we will send out additional information next week as to how volunteers may be able to help deliver the boxes of 5 frozen meals. These details are currently being ironed out.
- Our staff will continue to regularly call and check in on our clients throughout this time and offer information on other resources that may help them. We ask that you do the same with your elderly family members and neighbors.
The Board of Directors and staff consider the health and safety of our participants and our volunteers to be of the utmost importance. We have made these changes to provide necessary food to people who depend on our services and provide them with a safety check that is equally as important.
March 11, 2020
The health and safety for Meals on Wheels Wake County participants, volunteers and employees is the top priority, especially with the rapidly changing conditions surrounding the novel Coronavirus known as COVID-19.
At this time, we plan to continue operating normally and delivering meals Monday through Friday. If conditions change, we will announce any changes to our program. We will communicate with participants over the telephone to make certain the modified program is understood. We also will communicate with other stakeholders via social media, email, and personal communication where appropriate.
We know that limiting physical contact with others and staying home if there are any symptoms of illness are actions that everyone can take. We are working with all of our community partners where we are located to maintain the highest levels of preparedness.
Meals on Wheels Wake County will strengthen our already rigorous food service handling requirements. We will continue to make available soap and water for hand washing as well as hand sanitizer and gloves.
We regularly sanitize all food handling surfaces and equipment, and we will increase the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing.
We will begin querying staff, volunteers and employees to identify individuals who might have traveled to impacted areas since February 24, 2020.
We will continue to monitor the situation and receive information daily from Meals on Wheels America, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina Emergency Management. We will update you as necessary.
In the meantime, please contact me if you require further information.
Sincerely,
Alan Winstead
Executive Director
Meals on Wheels of Wake County
alan@wakemow.org
919-833-1749
Support Increased Funding During OLDER AMERICANS MONTH - Urge Congress to Support the Subcommittee's Proposed Increase in Funding.
Use this link: http://cqrcengage.com/mealsonwheelsamerica/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=499525 to urge your Representative to protect and increase federal funding for Meals on Wheels programs in FY 2020 and beyond.
On May 1 the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-Ed) Appropriations Subcommittee passed an increase in funding for the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Program of $93 million over current levels, bringing total Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 funding to $1 billion! If approved, this proposed increase would help support Meals on Wheels programs across the country to deliver critical services to seniors in need. This proposal mirrors the requests for a 10% increase in OAA Nutrition Program funding that we've been making collectively through letters, testimony, meal deliveries and site visits during March for Meals, meetings, regular communications and outreach, and more. While this funding increase is not yet final and there are multiple steps that must still occur in the appropriations process to bring it to fruition, this is an incredible testament to our network's persistent advocacy efforts, and we can't let up now.
Following yesterday's Subcommittee markup, the House Labor-HHS-Ed spending bill will now go to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration on or around May 8. This means we have a week to influence our Representatives at this point in the appropriations process and urge them to support the Subcommittee's proposed increased funding for home-delivered and congregate nutrition programs.
Raleigh Beehive Collective Grant to Fund New MOW Initiative - Hospital to Home
Meals on Wheels of Wake County is thrilled to announce that we are the recipient of the 2019 Beehive Collective’s large grant of $50,000 over 2 years. Our project is to provide 10 days of meals to seniors (aged 60 and over) who have been discharged from a hospital or rehab center. This service will allow seniors the chance to recover or make other arrangements for meals following a hospital stay. Patients will be referred to the service by Raleigh area hospital staff, the patient's doctor, or home-health care agencies for patients located in Raleigh.
Senior Voices Video Project!
Listen to voices of the seniors on youtube.
Subaru Share the Love Event - November 15, 2018 through January 2, 2019
Learn how you can be a part of this great fundraising opportunity - click for full story
Bank of American Foundation Donates a $10,000 Grant
In May 2018 the Bank of America Foundation donated a $10,000 grant to Meals on Wheels of Wake County. Board member Keith Erazmus brought the check to the Board meeting. This grant will help to purchase over 1,400 meals for our homebound clients in need.
Meals on Wheels of Wake County Delivers 9 Millionth Meal
Stewards Fund Challenge Grant
We need your help to reach the Stewards Fund Challenge Grant. If we raise $80,000 from new donors, increased donations from existing donors, or donations from a lapsed donors the Stewards Fund will match it dollar for dollar. That means another $80,000 (11,000+ meals) for Meals on Wheels. Donations must be received between November 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018. The challenge is on – help us reach the goal.
