“Keep ‘em Rolling” Event to be on September 9th

Please join us in celebrating the generous donors and volunteers who have “Kept ‘em Rolling” since 1970.  Our annual fall fund raising event  this year will be called “Keep ‘em Rolling,”  and will be held on September 9, 2008 from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. at a great new venue -- Jackie Cooper Imports (9393 S. Memorial). Enjoy a delicious progressive dinner with wine, beer and signature drink. Guests will dance to entertaining music, bid at a silent auction filled with outstanding items and after a champagne toast bid on unique items during the live auction. You can arrive in style as an event sponsor. Sponsorship levels include: Porsche Sponsor $5,000; Mercedes Sponsor $2,500; Infiniti Sponsor $1,000; Volvo Sponsor $500; Smart Car Sponsor $250; and Individual Tickets $75

The fall event will help Meals on Wheels keep putting food on the tables of our homebound neighbors so do not miss this wonderful event, it is sure to be a moving experience.

If you would like more information or to reserve your space at the event, please contact the Meals on Wheels at (918) 627-4103 or Stacie at swilson@atlasok.com

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New Wheels Benefits Meals on Wheels

As CarMax, the used car superstore, opened a location in Tulsa they are already proving they want to give back to the community. CarMax opened its first store in 1993 in Richmond, Virginia, and currently has 90 stores across the United States.  They have been named one of the Fortune 500 companies. As part of their grand opening in Tulsa they will partner with Meals on Wheels to provide help to our homebound recipients. Radio station Z-104.5 (The Edge) helped kick off the event at the CarMax location on July 25th.

You can visit CarMax through August 15th and help fill up a pick-up bed with donated canned food items that will be used in the Meals on Wheels Blizzard Bag project. A "Blizzard Bag" is an emergency sack of food items which is provided to Meals on Wheels recipients to hold in reserve for a winter day when snow and ice make regular Meals on Wheels delivery impossible.  The bags contain shelf-stable, easy-to-fix items which assures that the homebound elderly and disabled will at least have something good to eat until the next regular Meals on Wheels delivery day. Here are the type of items we use in the sacks:

♦  Single can serving of heat & serve items such as:

Soup, Beef Stew, Spaghetti, Chili, etc. (items that can be heated to form the basis of a meal; ready to serve)

♦  Any brand shelf-stable heat-and-serve meal

                        ♦  Small can of tuna fish

                        ♦  Small, easy open can of vegetables

♦  Canned or dried fruits (small packages, or individual serving pack)

♦  Individually packaged crackers or cookies

♦  Small jar of creamy peanut butter

♦  Small can or package of non-refrigerated fruit juices

♦  Single serving dessert cup, pudding, or fruit cup (non-refrigerated type)

♦  Instant Hot Chocolate Mix, tea, or coffee (packets)

During the month of August you can drop of food that will be used for these “Blizzard Bags” at the CarMax location on 91^st and Memorial or call Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa at 627-4103.

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Teleflora Makes Meals on Wheels Recipients Smile

On Monday, July 21^st Teleflora and its Oklahoma members provided 500 floral arrangements in the company’s keepsake “Be Happy” mugs to Tulsa area homebound persons. Meals on Wheels volunteers delivered this wonderful surprise along with the daily meal. The “Make Someone Smile Week” is part of a national effort, and the floral industry’s leading charitable project. This is the fourth consecutive year that local florists have provided smiles to Tulsa’s frail elderly and disabled.

Teleflora’s project spans 270 cities throughout the United States and Canada, involves 5,000 florists who donate their time, and donated over 38,000 bouquets to those most in need of a smile. Recipients of the “Be Happy Mug” across the country included hospital patients, children in rehab centers, and residents living in assisted homes. The Oklahoma unit worked to secure donations of flowers and supplies and selected the clients of our home delivered meals program to be one of the beneficiaries of this project.  Florists from all over Oklahoma donated their time and expertise to create these beautiful arrangements, putting them together during their convention at the Renaissance Hotel the weekend of July 19^th and 20^th.  Local florists then delivered 500 of the hand-arranged creations to the various Meals on Wheels’ church site locations on Monday morning for delivery to the recipients along with their meals. In the picture above, Meals on Wheels volunteers Ralph and Frances Moore present the "Be Happy Mug" which brings a smile to an appreciative recipient.

Dan Rabovsky, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa, said “This definitely brought smiles to our recipients. There is nothing like the look on the face of a person who receives a beautiful unexpected gift like this. We thank Ronn Doby of Mary Murray’s Flowers, President of the Teleflora Oklahoma Unit, and all the local florists who have helped to brighten the day for so many homebound.”

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PRESS RELEASE FROM MOWAA –

Skyrocketing Gas and Food Prices Put Hungry Seniors at Greater Risk

June 3, 2008, Alexandria, VA — A survey of Meals On Wheels programs in all 50 states, conducted by the Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA) between May 22 and May 30, paints a graphic and disturbing picture of the serious impact that skyrocketing gas and food prices are having on Senior Nutrition Programs— and the frail, vulnerable homebound seniors they serve— in communities across America.

A majority (58%) of Meals On Wheels programs responding reported that they had lost volunteers due to gas prices.  These programs have traditionally relied on hundreds of thousands of volunteers each day to make meal deliveries to the homes of clients and to check in on these isolated individuals.  This loss of manpower from the volunteer workforce has had deleterious consequences for the operation of many Meals On Wheels programs. For example, nearly half (48.3%) of the programs responding indicated that increases in gas prices had forced them to eliminate meal delivery routes or to consolidate their meal services.  Although the manner in which these changes are implemented differed from program to program and community to community, one fact remains the same. Already-vulnerable seniors, who rely on Meals On Wheels for meals and other life-sustaining nutritional support, are being put at even greater risk of hunger, poor health and nutritional status, and even loss of life.

In describing how they are coping with increased food and gas prices, well over one third (38.2%) of the Meals On Wheels programs reported a change in the type of meals served.  One commonly-cited change was movement away from hot, freshly prepared meals to frozen meals.  This shift went hand-in-hand with another cost-cutting measure, namely a reduction in the frequency of delivery of meals (30.2%).  Some Meals On Wheels programs that have routinely delivered one hot meal per day, five days per week, are finding it necessary to make a single delivery per week consisting of one hot meal and four frozen meals.  Others have eliminated the hot meal entirely.

“It is almost impossible to overstate the seriousness of the situation,” said Enid A. Borden, President and CEO of MOWAA, “because the impact for Meals On Wheels clients are not ‘pocketbook’ issues as they are for other Americans. They are health and welfare and even life and death issues.”  To illustrate the point, Ms. Borden quoted a survey comment MOWAA received from a rurally-based program in California: “We have had to put seniors on frozen routes that receive a 14 day supply of dinners. By eliminating routes the daily check on seniors is gone and we have been told that two different seniors were found dead and had been deceased for as many as 7 days. Daily contact is needed; it saves lives.”

More than one fifth (21.8%) of the programs responded that they were actually forced to reduce the number of meals that they served and well over a third (38.2%) had to resort to reducing the number of clients the program could accept.  “In my 15 years at MOWAA,” Borden continued, “I have come to know Meals On Wheels programs as heroes.  They literally save and improve lives daily.  I have been equally impressed with their creativity, ingenuity, ability to stretch always limited resources beyond what most of us could ever imagine.  But there is a limit to how far that can go, and we are approaching that limit.  The hard reality is that the number of seniors needing meals is not shrinking— in fact, it is growing— and the commitment and passion of programs to meet those needs remains strong.  But it is getting increasingly difficult to meet our mission and the moral imperative of assuring “. . . no senior goes hungry”® because of factors literally beyond our control.”    

Borden and MOWAA Member programs acknowledge that a solution to the problem is complex and not likely to occur overnight.  Additionally, no single entity has the power to devise the whole solution.  “It is a national problem and solving it should be a national priority,” declared Borden. “There are changes that need to be made at the federal level, and MOWAA is calling on Congress today to increase appropriations for Senior Nutrition Programs significantly— by at least 10% over the current year— to help address this catastrophe. Even that won’t be sufficient and the communities that have always supported these programs need to contribute as well.  New volunteers and donations are always needed at the local level.  So today we are calling on all Americans to pitch in.”

The Meals On Wheels Association of America is the oldest and largest national organization in the United States representing those programs that provide meals to people in need. To obtain more information about MOWAA or to locate a local Meals On Wheels program, visit the MOWAA website at www.mowaa.org.

Additional Comments on how it is affecting our Local Program –

From Dan Rabovsky, Executive Director

Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa is trying to do some of the things mentioned in the above article, including making routes shorter and more efficient.

We have lost a few volunteers who have said they can no longer afford the cost of driving to deliver the meals, and this is also putting increased pressure on us to recruit new volunteers.  Our volunteers have, up to now, used their own vehicles without any reimbursement for mileage.

A typical delivery route for us is relatively short, at about 10-12 miles, and most volunteers drive it only once a week or every other week.  At this distance, it takes only about ½ gallon of gas each time they drive, so the cost is currently about $2 to deliver their route. There are some exceptions, of course.  A few of our routes are longer, depending upon where their delivery site is, and also a few of our volunteers drive more often than once a week.

While most of our volunteers don’t drive very many miles, we realize that the rising cost of fuel for our volunteers who are on fixed incomes does produce increasing concern. We would like to put it into perspective however, by pointing out that the typical volunteer currently is facing a cost of just $2 each time they deliver for Meals on Wheels.

Recently another local program, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RVSP), has had a special grant to help their members who are also Meals on Wheels volunteers with mileage reimbursement.  Some of our volunteers have participated in that program, and we encourage all volunteers to take advantage of membership in RSVP and apply to receive this benefit. 

We are tremendously grateful for volunteers who generously donate their time and their out-of-pocket fuel expenses to deliver these vital meals to the homebound.  We also want to remind volunteers that the IRS allows individuals to claim their donated mileage to Meals on Wheels as a tax deductible contribution (if you itemize your deductions you can deduct 14 cents per volunteer mile as a charitable donation).

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              Your  Inner Artist

Meals on Wheels Wants To See

Your Inner Artist!

We would like to display, reproduce,

 or even sell YOUR works of art for our

Annual Fall Fundraiser

September 9, 2008

This Years Theme

Keep on Rolling (Think Wheels)

If you would like to submit your artwork, please contact Stacie Wilson at

627-4103 or swilson@atlasok.com

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Food Handler Classes for 2008

All Food Handler volunteers (kitchen packers) should check their cards and make sure that they get a new card sometime before the expiration date listed.  Cards need to be renewed every year now.  All classes will be held at the Meals on Wheels facility, in the Conference Room (12620 E. 31st Street) except as otherwise noted.

The Health Department requires us to guarantee at least 12 participants per class, so we must ask for advance registrations (call 627-4103) so that we can insure we will have the minimum number present for the session.

• Wednesday, January 16,  at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, February 20, at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, March 19, at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 16, at 1:00 p.m.
• May 15^th (held at the Spring Volunteer Workshop; First United Methodist Church, 12:30 p.m.)
• Wednesday, June 18, 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, July 16, at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 20, at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, September 17, at 1:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, October 15, at 1:00 p.m.
• Thursday, November 13, at 12:30 p.m. (At the Annual Meeting; place to be announced)
• Wednesday, December 17, at 1:00 p.m.

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MEALS 4 PAW STARZ -  PET FOOD PROJECT