Wake Co. Meals on Wheels deals with growing expenses
Higher food and gas costs have Wake County Meals on Wheels directors starting a fundraising campaign so the non-profit group can afford to keep clients fed.
Posted — Updated“There’s sometimes we drive and we are on ‘E’ (empty) taking them their meal, but they get their meal,” White said.
Across the country, nearly 60 percent of the estimated 5,000 programs that belong to the Meals on Wheels Association of America have lost volunteers who can't afford gas, said Enid A. Borden, president and CEO of the program that has been providing meals to Americans in need since 1954.
Nearly half the programs have eliminated routes or consolidated meal services. Some 38 percent have switched to delivering frozen rather than hot meals, while about 30 percent are cutting personal visits from five days a week to one.
"We're in a crisis and it's just getting worse and worse," Borden said.
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