SENIOR CITIZENS Meal-delivery programs switch from hot to cold

Dwindling funds, volunteer shortages and gas prices are forcing changes.
EVERETT, Pa. (AP) -- Ever since this year's state budget cut forced social services to stop delivering hot meals to seniors living in this mountainous region of western Pennsylvania, the friendly drivers who deliver food to Maxine Hite only come by once a week instead of five times a week.
That's a disappointment for the 66-year-old homebound woman, who appreciated having hot meals delivered to her doorstep and being able to chat with the drivers -- sometimes the only people she sees in a day. And now the food comes frozen and needs to be heated up rather than being hot and ready to eat.
"I miss the drivers ... and I liked hot meals better," Hite said last week, sitting on a lounge chair inside her one-bedroom apartment in Everett, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Meal-delivery programs around the nation continue to struggle to meet the demands of America's growing senior population. Across the nation, volunteers, churches, charities and social service agencies run meal-delivery programs for seniors, and all say they could use more help.
For example, aging services in Montana have warned that legislative cuts could result in 76,000 fewer meals for seniors in the state. Officials at a Delaware Meals on Wheels program have put out a call for more than 200 new volunteers.
And in rural Missouri, meal-delivery organizers were barely able to keep delivering 835,000 meals a year by cutting senior transportation services.
What's being done
Approximately four out of every 10 programs have waiting lists, according to Enid Borden, chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based Meals on Wheels Association of America.
National organizers say many rural organizations have switched from hot to frozen meals that seniors heat up themselves, as a result of flat federal assistance, smaller state subsidies, volunteer shortages and higher gas prices.
"I think it's pretty safe to say it's a trend," said Connie Benton Wolfe, executive director of the National Meals on Wheels Foundation.
Borden says seniors need healthy meals whether the food arrives hot or cold.
"Programs try to do whatever they can to find savings," Borden said. "Delivering meals once a week and [having seniors] heat them up does save money. ... The bottom line is, our programs know we've got to get the food out."
Jean Leonatti, director of the Central Missouri Area Agency on Aging, says the 19-county area has used frozen meals alongside hot meals for a decade. In many cases, the switch has resulted in 50 percent savings from mileage alone, Leonatti said.
What recipients say
The Bedford area Agency on Aging is hoping to save an estimated $50,000 on its $379,000 meal-delivery budget this year by switching from five hot meal trips to one frozen meal drop a week. With drivers serving more than 400 seniors in a 2,000-square-mile area, director Alan Smith said the agency simply couldn't afford to keep up with demand.
"It is just unbelievably expensive to operate," Smith said.
Many seniors like Trudy Clark, 62, appreciate the convenience of the microwavable meals. Clark, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, started getting frozen meals delivered in May after she stopped cooking for herself.
"The only one I don't like is the turkey," Clark said. "These are just like if I were cooking for myself."
But while the agency tries to make the switch more palatable for seniors by looking to add fresh fruit, they have heard complaints.
Hite, who has been getting frozen meals since April, says she preferred the hot meals because she sometimes has trouble heating up the food in her oven.
After years of having hot meals delivered, Ethel Ford, 82, stopped taking the frozen meals several weeks ago because she didn't like the taste.
Ford, who has macular degeneration, now cooks her own meals with her son's assistance at her farmhouse in Everett.
"With warm meals, you got fresh lettuce, coleslaw, cake, pieces of fruit, sometimes lemon custard. But with frozen meals, you get nothing like that," Ford said.
Dianne Trammel, finance director of the Meals on Wheels program in Asheville, N.C., says she's fortunate because she has enough volunteers to cook and deliver hot meals to some 400 seniors in Buncombe County. She believes a switch to frozen meals would diminish the value of her program.
"Sometimes you get wound up in the budget and you lose sight of what you're supposed to be doing," Trammel said.