Meals on Wheels Wake County provides free lunches to hundreds of people in need across the Triangle each day, but some proposed federal budget cuts by the Trump Administration could sharply reduce the number of recipients who depend on the daily deliveries.
Workers at the Wake agency prepare daily nutritious meals that have a main course, fruits and vegetables. The group has more than 125 volunteers who pack and deliver 2,000 meals a day, officials said.
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Administrators said it costs the group up to $1,500 per person each year to provide a free meal every week to those in need.
The Wake agency said it plans to spend about $2.8 million this year to serve 328,000 people.
Stanley Ferell is one of those among the first volunteers who to pack lunches for the group’s Meals on Wheels recipients.
"I've been doing it every Friday morning for about four to three years," said Ferell.
The current concern is that proposed cuts to the federal government’s health and human services budget could affect the Meals on Wheels service in North Carolina and the rest of the country.
"We either have to make the choice of not serving as many people or we have to go back to the local community and do more and more fundraising," said Alan Winstead, director of the Wake County Meals on Wheels group, which also prepares meals for needy recipients in Johnston County.
Elizabeth Werner wants to keep serving lots of people. For her, delivering 10 meals a day is a labor of love.
"What prides me is that they are able to stay in their home,” she said. “That's the home that they grew up in. This is the home that they're safe in (and) they feel comfortable there. We provide the meals so that they don't have to leave their home."
One of her 10 deliveries is to 71-year-old Susan Phelps.
Phelps can't reach the stove to cook, so Meals on Wheels makes her life easier.
"All you have to do is peel that plastic off and eat," she said. "The meals are really good and nourishing. I love this mac and cheese and the chocolate pudding."
She looks forward to the visits as much as she does the food.
"A lot of these senior citizens (are) forgotten,” Phelps said. “And this makes you feel like somebody really cares."