Meals on Wheels of Mercer County

MOWMC measures our success first and foremost by the ability to continue to serve all those who need a meal and not turn anyone away. Secondly, it is the ability to keep seniors in their homes, and healthy, for as long as possible. We use length of stay in our program as an indicator, and reasons for termination as well. Specifically, we:
a) Help reduce the number of older adults placed in long term care facilities by providing nutritional support in the community, thus improving and maintaining the health of these individuals.

b) Improve the ability of homebound older adults to age in place by supporting them living in their own homes for greater periods of time through good nutrition, nutrition counseling, weekend meals for those with no access to food on the weekends, and daily wellness checks to ensure they are safe and thriving in their homes.

c) Support of participants through community partnerships, such as monthly provision of nonperishable groceries, "Blizzard Bags" for inclement weather, nutrition counseling, monthly nutritional/educational information, specialized pet food bags for the "furry" family members of our participants, community news and events, delivery of library books, and voter registration information

d) Assist participants in connecting with other community resources to reinforce community support networks.

In order to do all the above, there are two extremely important things that we need to have: Enough funds for daily operations most importantly, the provision of food, and a constant and steady flow of volunteers to deliver those meals.
The need for meals for the homebound has been a constant for us since 1973, and nationally, previous to the founding of the movement in Philadelphia in 1954, and the national office in 1975.
Meals on Wheels of Mercer County has an active volunteer recruitment program that reaches out locally through churches and civic groups, and uses a myriad of local infinitives to bring in the most caring and kind volunteers eager to give back to their community. Without our volunteers, we could not do what we do on a daily basis.They are also our constituents, and providing a meaningful, and efficent volunteer experience is extremely important to us. Besides doing the daily legwork of meal delivery, always with a smile and a kind word, they are our eyes and ears on the ground, and have on many occasions helped us mitigate life threatening situations with our participants.
We also actively seek grant funding, through government, corporate and private foundations, and maintain an active donor solicitation program to remain as self sustaining as possible to be able to provide subsidies whenever needed. Both these important strategies is what keeps us in business.

Meals on Wheels of Mercer County does a lot with a little. Our annual budget hovers around $1,000,000 with food costs currently representing about 54% of our budget, and we operate on a staff of 4. The division of labor in our agency reflects the three most important areas in our agency; Our participants, our volunteers and our fundraising activities to stay in business. All four staff are experienced professionals, the CEO with close to 30 years experience in executive management.
Meals on Wheels of Mercer County has done everything possible to deliver services in the most efficient and cost effective manner. Being good stewards of the funds entrusted to us by our community to serve those who need us is a top priority. In addition to the above, we partner with another non-profit in the preparation of meals to cut costs, and also offer training opportunities to their program participants.

We have had many achievements over the past three years.
We have expanded into 6 additional municipalities, increasing meals by 57%.
We have added many new programs; weekend meals, nutrition counseling, specialized pet food bags, and fresh fruits and veggies in the summer.
We have increased our volunteer base.
We have been able to increase and stabilize funding to make sure no one who qualifies goes without a meal, and those who qualify for a subsidy receive one.
We have been able NOT to have a waiting list, again, turning no one away who needs a meal.
We have made many QC improvements together with our caterer in our overall meal prep and delivery process, and increased menu offerings.
We have created and implemented our third, three-year strategic plan.

As mentioned before, it is always our goal to make sure we have enough funding to continue our operations, and remain responsive to the needs of our participants. That will always be an on-going process.