Grant Expands Meals on Wheels in Aroostook

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - The Aroostook Agency on Aging has received a $570,000 Meeting Unmet Need Grant from Meals on Wheels America to help reduce its waiting list for home-delivered meals. The funding is expected to help more older adults in Aroostook County get the meals they need sooner.

The Aroostook Agency on Aging currently has more people on the waiting list for its Meals on Wheels program than it is able to serve each day. With a new $570,000 Meeting Unmet Need Grant from Meals on Wheels America, the agency will be able to expand service to more people in need, but this will mean more help is needed from the community.

Chris Beaulieu, Director of Programs & Services for the Agency said: “We are gonna essentially double our clients getting meals and we rely on volunteers. They are kind of the life of this program, and so we’re gonna need to really grow that aspect of the agency. This is gonna be a real big boost for so many folks. We have about 230 folks on the waitlist, and we’ve had people on the waitlist for 2 to 3 years and so it’s been a long time. We haven’t had the funding. We’ve utilized all of our funding now for the current clients and this is gonna allow us to help those folks and get them the meals that they so much need.”

While the grant will allow the agency to provide meals to everyone currently on the waiting list, the funding only lasts for nine months. “The one portion that’s not as positive is this is temporary. This is one time funding, but it does allow us to provide these folks meals for 9 months and that’s 9 months longer than they would have before and often times that’s the difference between someone being able to stay in their own home or not,” Beaulieu continued.

Agency leaders say they’re already looking ahead for how to fund the program after the grant runs out. One possible long-term solution is LD 814, the Older Mainers Act, which would support services that help older adults remain in their homes, including Meals on Wheels.

“We’re very positive about this bill and what it could do to help not only home delivered meals but many of the other services that we offer that are constrained by just the amount of funding that we receive for them,” said Joy Barresi Saucier, Executive Director of the Aroostook Agency on Aging.

With the Meals on Wheels client list set to more than double, the agency is looking for community volunteers to help with meal deliveries. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the Aroostook Agency on Aging at 764-3396 or visitwww.aroostookaging.org.