Home-Delivered Meals Mean Everything to 86 Year-Old Grandmother

Once a committed volunteer at the Middletown Hospital, 86 year-old Wilma (pictured at left) now lives alone, legally blind due to macular degeneration. Wilma was first referred to Middletown Area Senior Citizens, Inc. (MASC), a United Way of Greater Cincinnati agency partner, five years ago for transportation services when she could no longer drive.

United Way is committed to building a stronger, healthier community by supporting agencies that engage individuals, like Wilma, who are frail or elderly in programs that promote wellness, independence, and social engagement. Because older adults with fixed or limited incomes often consume diets of lower nutritional quality and are twice as likely to have poor health status, MASC provides nutritionally balanced home-delivered meals, transportation services, and social services aid to persons 60 and over who are homebound, unable to prepare their own meals, or have no one to cook for them.

The agency has since expanded its outreach to her, including daily home-delivered meals and Becky, an in-home aid who comes once per week. Becky helps with grocery shopping and bill paying, but, most importantly, provides Wilma with moral support and companionship. Steve, a MASC employee, visits Wilma daily, delivering not only a nutritional meal, but also checking on her well-being and making sure she’s OK.

Wilma says, “I wouldn’t have any reason to get out of bed and get dressed if it weren’t for Becky or Steve coming over.”

Through such outreach programs, we can help individuals, like Wilma, maximize their independence, financial stability, and quality of life. 3,571 Middletown clients were served by home delivered meal programs in 2010.