Amador County – Facing higher costs and loss of home-cooked meals, the Amador County Meals on Wheels program received $15,000 in funding from the Amador County Board of Supervisors last week.

Common Ground Senior Services Executive Director Elisabeth S. Thompson told supervisors that the program has switched to frozen meals that are heated and delivered. She said they have lost some interest in the meals because they are frozen, and no longer home-cooked, but they are keeping the integrity of what Meals on Wheels is, and that is the “daily wellness check.”

She said Amador numbers have dropped by about 30 people due to frozen meals, while Calaveras County has made the change as well, but has not had any complaints. Thompson said she feels they are feeding those who need it most.

Common Ground is working with Sutter Amador Hospital to do bulk preparation of about 200 meals for people. Supervisor John Plasse said the organization had a decrease in gifts of food in-kind, and he asked what donations they can receive. Thompson said they can take vegetables and canned goods. They have found another company to donate wheat bread.

Plasse said they should talk to some ranchers into donating a side of beef, to get frozen meats out of that. Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said processed meat must be stamped “not for public sale” and needs USDA certification and he suggested the organization work with the Ag Commissioner on certification.

Plasse said maybe they can create some sort of community meat processing system. He said Mule Creek Prison actually cuts and wraps all the meat that is distributed through the California prison system. He said even good, lean ground beef is a good, nutritious food.

Thompson said the funding stays in Amador County, and the Meals on Wheels program served 43,000 meals last year, up from 37,000 the year before. She said they serve 230 unduplicated clients. Costs are almost one dollar per meal, including gasoline. For a lot of people, this hot meal is also the only thing that they eat in a day. Some must choose between food and medicine. They serve 100 to 130 meals a day in the program.

They also started the “congregate site program” in the third week of April, serving 12 meals at the Upcountry Community Center. Congregate meals are “definitely where we want to go.”

Thompson said “the goal this year is to work really hard with other groups.” They are working on putting congregate sites to serve meals in other isolated areas like River Pines. Forster said it is very true that these are the only hot meal of the day for some people.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.