Jack Turpen has something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
He got a call from the Quad Cities Senior Center early this month informing him he soon would be coming off the waiting list for the Meals on Wheels program run by Aging Ahead.
Turpin, 83, of Pevely, who takes care of his wife, Laverne, said the meals will help them out.
“I have multiple myeloma (a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell), and my wife has Alzheimer’s (a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior),” Turpen said. “She was a wonderful cook, but she can’t remember how to do it anymore. I’m not a cook, and I’m her caregiver. I can cook basic stuff, but I’m not that good at anything more complicated than spaghetti.”
Turpen is one of 351 Jefferson County residents who will be taken off the waiting list and join 700 others who already receive Meals on Wheels through Aging Ahead, formerly known as Mid-East Area Agency on Aging, said Lisa Knoll, chief executive for the agency, which has four locations in the county – at the Arnold Senior Center, the De Soto Senior Center, the House Springs Senior Center and the Quad Cities Senior Center in Crystal City.
Aging Ahead just learned it received a $121,235.40 grant from the Jefferson Foundation, which will allow the agency to take people off the Meals on Wheels waiting list.
The foundation, which awards grants twice a year, announced its second round of recipients for 2019 on Nov. 18.
Aging Ahead received one of 78 grants awarded during the latest round.
Missy Endres, the foundation’s executive vice president, said the organization is “pretty excited” about the Aging Ahead grant.
“This money is to bridge and help people get off the waiting list until new funding is available,” Endres said.
Aging Ahead, as well as other Missouri agencies that help the aging, will start receiving funding from the Senior Services Growth Development Program that the Missouri General Assembly approved on Feb. 27.
Starting Jan. 1, 2020, the Department of Revenue will deposit 2.5 percent of premium taxes collected from certain insurance companies and associations into the Senior Services Growth and Development Program Fund, and then the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services will disburse that money to area agencies on aging, like Aging Ahead.
In 2021, 5 percent of the premium taxes will be placed in the fund.
“We have been advocating for that for five years, and it passed the last session,” Knoll said. “It provides funding for senior-center programs, and Meals on Wheels is a senior-center program. When we applied to the foundation, we said we expect to have access to that money early next summer. What we needed was a stop gap. We needed to get over the hump and make sure we wouldn’t have these almost insurmountable numbers when the money came through in June.”
Knoll said 172 more people will be served by the House Springs location, 84 more will be served by the Arnold location, 56 more will be served by the
De Soto location and 39 more will be served by the Quad Cities location.
Staff at those locations said they are thrilled more residents will be able to get the meal service.
“This is wonderful,” said Beth Sachs, who is the central kitchen manager at the House Springs location. “We are very grateful and appreciative. Being able to go out and meet with our clients helps you see how much need there is in the senior community. Being able to get rid of this wait list is amazing.”
Cindy Hunt, the administrator at the De Soto location, said Meals on Wheels can be critical for some of the clients.
“Some of the people we deliver to, this is the only meal they get,” Hunt said.
The Jefferson County locations will be able to deliver meals with the current crop of volunteers. However, more volunteers are always welcome.
“We can always use more drivers,” said Leslie Radosh, the administrator at the Quad Cities location, which services Crystal City, Festus, Herculaneum and Pevely. “People can call any location to volunteer.”
Volunteers also are happy they will be able to deliver more meals.
“Any money that we can get to get the people back on hot meals is wonderful,” said Debbie McKenna, who has volunteered at the Quad City location for 12 years. “I think it is important the seniors get day-to-day contact when we deliver a hot meal. Frozen is delivered once a week, so they don’t get day-to-day contact. I used to deliver 26 hot meals on my route, and I delivered four (on Nov. 20).
“The more hot meals we can deliver, the happier I am. I enjoy meeting the people and looking after them. I just like the one-on-one contact every day of being able to talk to the folks and make sure they are OK. If I can get one more person to deliver to on my route, because of the foundation, I am happy for it.”
Mary Nicholson of Festus, who has been delivering meals from the Quad City location for eight years, said she used to deliver 27 meals and was down to five before the grant.
“It will be great to get more people back on the delivery list,” she said.
Turpen said he will be able to drive himself to the Quad Cities location to pick up his meals, which will be a two-week supply of frozen meals.
He said he was scheduled to get his first set of meals on Nov. 22.
“It takes a huge burden off me trying to figure out what to fix and determining if I’m capable of fixing it,” Turpen said. “Also, when I’m wiped out on the days I have chemotherapy I don’t feel like (cooking), and I will stop off on the way home at a restaurant. You wind up eating too much fast food that way. This will be healthier for us.”
Along with providing meals, which can be daily hot meals or a collection of frozen meals, Knoll said the Meals on Wheels program offers recipients other benefits.
“We say it is more than a meal,” Knoll said. “It is a regular check or assessment to see if they need other services. Meals on Wheels can be a jumping-off point to other services.”
This is the sixth grant Aging Ahead has received from the foundation to help the Meals on Wheels program. Since 2014, the first year grant money was distributed, Aging Ahead has been awarded $323,323.34.
“They have been instrumental in terms of us being able to cook,” Knoll said of the foundation.
