Meals on Wheels general manager Jennifer West says with the increasing demand for food support from seniors plus financial challenges that have come with the rising cost of living, the local charity needs community support more than ever.
To mobilise that help, on Friday morning Meals on Wheels kicked off its annual ‘Change for Change’ coin drive seeking the community’s support in feeding local seniors under its care. West is hopeful they can surpass the $34,000 raised last year.
“Dig deep, give from your heart. We’re all going to be seniors some day,” she implored the public as she spoke with the Cayman Compass Friday in a telephone interview.
“These seniors have been the pillars of our community and this is our time to help be a part of the change and give them higher quality of life through what we do as a community for them.”
Demand increasing
At present, she said, the non-profit is serving free meals to 333 seniors five days a week across all five districts in Grand Cayman.
However, she said more requests are coming in for food support, which is the “biggest challenge” for the charity.
There is a waiting list at the moment which she is hoping to do away with, West added.
“We’re hoping that after this weekend we are able to eliminate [that list] completely. However, we do have to process every application that comes in. We do review and do a home visit and we try to meet the needs of all the seniors across our community.
“We daily get referrals and we are hoping that we never have to have a waiting list. Unfortunately, that’s not the situation,” she said.
West said that previously it would cost Meals on Wheels $5 per meal and it would be easy to get supplies, but now that is not the case with the spike in food prices.
In fact, she said sometimes the local charity cannot get some of the supplies it needs.
“Our supplies – whether it’s the containers or the chicken or the rice – everything has gone up in cost which is definitely impacting our ability… to increase the number of seniors that we serve,” she said, adding that because the cost of producing the free meals is also rising, it is an increasing expense for Meals on Wheels.
But the charity does get in-kind donations, which helps, West said.
“We encourage even the farmers, whether it’s eggs or lettuce or cucumbers, breadfruit, plantains. I mean we get all kinds of calls and we definitely appreciate support in every way that it comes,” she said.
West said the drive is running all day Friday and Saturday at various locations.
“We have almost 300 volunteers that are helping over the course of the next two days to collect donations and count them. Pennies, quarters, bills [will go] into food for seniors,” she said.
The coin drive, the first fundraiser this year for Meals on Wheels, is really important “to ensure that our services are able to continue; we rely very heavily on the community for our events and to provide for our seniors”, she said.
West stressed that raising funds for Meals on Wheels is “really critical to ensure that all of our seniors [not only get] a hot meal, because it is so much more than just a meal… that daily visit from a volunteer is also a lifeline and a support,” she said.
Coin drive volunteers will be at the following locations:
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