Since 1971, State College Area Meals on Wheels has been working to provide freshly prepared meals to seniors and other homebound individuals. During a celebration on Aug. 16, Board President Sharon Ambrose put the 50-year anniversary in perspective.
“To think that we have current Meals on Wheels clients who were students at Penn State when we first delivered our meals … Isn’t that amazing? That is how long we have been around,” Ambrose said.
In the past 50 years, the nonprofit, which started out as a Lenten project of the State College Ministerium, led by Rev. Canon James G. Trust of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, has grown from serving 28 clients a day to 250, serving 55,000 meals per year.
Overall, 1.5 million meals have been delivered out of its home location at Grace Lutheran Church.
Ambrose said over the past 18 months the pandemic has posed some of the greatest challenges in the program’s history, “but Meals on Wheels is emerging from COVID stronger than ever. We actually are managing to expand the offering that we provide to our clients.”
Early on in the pandemic, State College Area Meals on Wheels pivoted quickly to meet the needs of its clients, reducing the deliveries from five days a week to three, providing clients with frozen meals and shelf-stable foods.
The organization increased services to meet the needs of its clients by adding a calling program to prevent isolation, book deliveries and delivery of groceries and necessities. The program has been returning to its regular format in recent weeks and is also introducing a grocery shopping pilot program for residents needing assistance.
Meals on Wheels also built a relationship with Centre County Paws during the pandemic to provide food and pet supplies for about 10 clients who are unable to get to the store for their pets.
“If anybody had any doubts about what this community is about, last year really showed it because we are one of the few really tiny Meals on Wheels that didn’t miss a day of service. We had to change how we did things and change our deliveries, but our clients always had food,” Executive Director Suelynn Shiller said.
Looking at the next 50 years, Shiller said the organization will continue to adjust and evolve with trends in food service.
“The future will be different,” Shiller said. “We are aging in a different way. Look for things that are more aligned to what is happening in the marketplace. Probably less prepared meals and more kits where things are already prepared and you combine the flavors in the way that you want.”
She added that the program is committed to helping the local food economy and working with area producers as much as possible.
She credits the more than 150 volunteers for making a difference for those in need in the region.
“Fifty years is an amazing thing to be a part of in this community,” Shiller said. “The volunteers that power this are the core of the community.”
This story appears in the Aug. 26-Sept. 1 edition of The Centre County Gazette.
