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The goal of Meals on Wheels of Rowan, Inc. (MOW) is to serve a weekday lunch-time meal to every homebound citizen of Rowan County who is assessed to need MOW services, without regard to county location or ability to pay. MOW policy is to charge the client the direct cost of the meal (the price MOW pays to the provider). As a standard, many clients are able to pay only part or nothing toward the full price of the meal. Therefore, MOW adopted a sliding fee scale (using the criteria of government poverty level standards) to determine if clients pay only a part or nothing toward the direct meal cost. Additional project costs (costs involved in getting the meal from the meal site to the client) are not charged to the client. These costs are met by other funding sources to address the difference between the direct meal cost, client's ability to pay, and additional costs of the project.
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Our MOW Hunger Relief program in Rowan County presently serves, on average, 211 lunch-time weekday meals, without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, and/or ability to pay. MOW clients are 98% aged 65+ and the remaining 2% are physically disabled citizens under age 50. Weekday meals are designed to provide a daily nutritious meal. Three meal preparation sites prepare meals, fill the heat retaining/sealed individual serving containers and then pack them into thermal transport containers. Each client receives one HOT and one COLD sealed/compartmentalized meal tray. The HOT tray contains the meat and two vegetables and the cold tray contains the beverage, bread and dessert portions of the client’s meal. MOW staff verifies cooler meal counts before volunteers pick up. HOT meal trays are packed in new thermal transport carriers which provide improved heat retention. COLD meal trays are packed separately to retain a cool temperature.
Volunteers come to one of three meal sites to pick-up the meals for delivery. Volunteers leave the meal site and deliver to clients according to "route cards" which provide directions to clients' homes. A limited number of stops (average 10 per route) insure the meals are served fresh and as warm as possible. Daily review and redesign of routes is required to maintain route order, insure quality and efficiency, and to accommodate the client turnover. MOW staff members are responsible for soliciting and coordinating the volunteers that pick-up and deliver meals and, if necessary, fill in for a missing volunteer. In November, clients receive an emergency meal (shelf-safe) to be used when meals cannot be delivered due to inclement weather.
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