Meals on Wheels a Lifesaver

March 18, 2017 – Arizona Daily Sun

I feel pretty strongly about lots of things in the Trump Budget. But the one that really hit hard, the one that shocked me and then made me cry and continues to make my blood boil was Meals on Wheels.

My mother lived alone in a small Iowa town for decades and I’ll never forget when she told me she was delivering meals to other older people in town. I asked her if she was cooking the meals. “No!” She said, “You know I don’t cook.” (One of the few things we had in common.)

“They cook them down at the community building, package them up, and put them in my trunk. I get 8 and I go visit people who live alone.” Really, Mom? I’d never heard of Meals on Wheels even though it had been started in the 1950s.

My mother delivered meals for over a decade in her little town. Once I asked her what people did before Meals on Wheels. They moved in with their kids or “some went to the County Farm.”

It wasn’t just the people who got to stay in their homes who benefited from Meals on Wheels. It was the whole community. My mother got out of the house, had something useful to do, and socialized with the townfolk. The folks cooking at the community building had the same benefits. This was going on all over the country.

Now, after over 50 years of success, it needs to stop because the money can better be used for tax cuts? Not on my watch.

ANN HEITLAND

Flagstaff

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