No senior citizen should be hungry and all alone

By Ginna Young

Imagine, if you will, that you’re an elderly person and maybe unable to fix your own meals, or shop for food. So, you rely on delivery of nutritious meals through the Meals on Wheels (MOW) program, that comes right to your door.

But, what if there aren’t enough volunteers to deliver those meals. Then what?

Cadott senior citizens who depend on those meals, are in that boat now, as in the village, delivery is down to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. For the rural route, delivery only takes place Mondays and Wednesdays.

Right now, Cadott’s MOW program only has a couple meal delivery volunteers on their roster and if they were unable to drive for some reason, well, it wouldn’t be good for the seniors depending on the meals.

“I’d hate to think that we’d have to go down to even less days,” said Kelly Zimmerman, program coordinator.

Along with the meals, volunteers offer a welfare check for the seniors, ensuring they get help in a timely manner, if needed, as well as improving the seniors’ quality of life by having a visitor, even if it’s for only a few minutes.

Volunteers can choose to deliver meals when it fits their schedule and may be eligible for gas reimbursement, which is determined through the volunteer application process.

To begin the volunteer process or for more information, contact the Chippewa County Aging and Disability Resource Center office, at 715-726-7777.

And just because meal delivery is needed in Cadott, it doesn’t mean that people from the surrounding towns can’t help out.

“We have people that will step in from other communities, if another one is struggling,” said Zimmerman.