Need for Meals on Wheels is evident

In October 2015, a State College resident who volunteers to deliver food for the State College Area Meals on Wheels left a lunch and dinner at the door of 72-year-old borough resident. When he came back to the same house two days later he noticed the previous meals were still in the doorway, untouched.

Meals on Wheels contacted the borough police and they discovered the senior citizen inside had fallen and was unable to move. If not for the regular meal deliveries by our volunteers, this older resident living at home by herself might have died there alone.

State College Area Meals on Wheels has delivered more than 1.4 million meals since its launching in 1971. The program works because of hundreds of volunteers, donors and the generous host of our daily efforts, Grace Lutheran Church.

President Donald Trump’s new budget calls for major cuts to a number of programs to help Americans, such as the Meals on Wheels programs in communities across the country. A White House official who said this program has never proven itself is wrong. State College MOW supporters prove that every day.

Last year, our program reached higher by expanding the three-day a week delivery program to five days a week, and delivering more than 57,500 meals. The need is there and many people worked hard to make this expansion possible.

We will continue to fulfill our mission.

For more information, visit http://scmow.2stay connected.com

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Need for Meals on Wheels is evident."