Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels hopes to shorten waiting list through annual fundraiser

Stephanie Yackich receives disability each month and is essentially homebound during the winter because of her health issues.

Her budget is tight, and at one point she only had around $25 a month for groceries. She says she also rarely has visitors with one exception - the delivery folks from Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels.

Five days a week, delivery people stop in to bring Yackich a healthy meal. But Yackich says they do much more than that. The also check on her well-being, help her with her mail, take out her garbage, and one Meals employee even takes Yackich out shopping once month.

“When they come in they take a minute or two and ask ‘How are you?’ ‘How are you feeling today,?’” said Yackich, who has received services from Meals for six years. “That’s one of the wonderful things about them and I appreciate them for doing that.”

Throughout eastern Washtenaw County, Meals on Wheels serves meals to 316 people weekly. Of those, 96 percent live alone, 35 percent are older than 81 years old and 42 percent live in poverty.

“It’s like the perfect storm of the isolated, sick and poor,” said director Ann Harris. Like with Yackich, the Meals staff and volunteers are often the only ones who check on the clients daily.

This week, Meals will hold its annual celebrity fundraiser to help keep the organization bringing meals and checking in on clients throughout the next year. The fundraiser will also will help cut into the waiting list of 45 individuals in need of services.

“That’s the rub here; these are elderly and sick individuals, and to have them on a waiting list is not the best thing. Through our fundraising, we’re trying to bring that list down,” Harris said.

The event is Thursday, March 21 from 5 to 9 p.m at Bentley’s at the Ann Arbor Marriot Ypilanti Eaglecrest, and will include a who’s who of local community leaders working as hosts and servers.

Meals on Wheels rents a room from the First Baptist Church in Ypsilanti that serves as its part-time office. Eastern Michigan University kitchen staff at Hoyt Center are contracted to make the meals.

Meals relies on 13 part-time staff members and a multitude of rotating volunteers to deliver food each day, and Harris said one of the challenges is finding regular volunteers instead of people who can only help for a week or two at a time.

The organization is partly funded through individual donations, fundraisers and money from the Older Americans Act.

Meals used to deliver six times a week, but has had to cut back to five as funding declined.

Those in need of meals are referred to the comapny through a variety of channels. Some come from hospitals, cancer centers, homecare providers and physicians.

“A lot of individuals we serve have multiple medical problems,” Harris said. “We are not only trying to bring them a meal, but because 96 percent live alone, safety is a huge concern. In many cases, we are the only ones checking on them every day, so we make sure they are safe.”

Meals delivers a full meal around the noon hour each day. The menu is on a 21-day rotation and each follows strict nutritional guidelines. The meals can’t have too much salt, for example, because of many clients’ health concerns. Yackich said her last meal included turkey tetrazzini, peas, squash and fresh fruit.

Among the celebrity servers at Thursday’s event are Michigan State Representatives David Rutledge and Gretchen Driscoll; Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber; Ypsilanti Township Clerk Karen Lovejoy-Roe; former Ypsilanti Public Schools Spuerintendent James Hawkins; Peggy Wilson, senior mortgage banker at Huron Valley Financial; Ypsilanti Township Trustee Mike Martin; Eastern Michigan University professor emeritus Morell Boone; Ypsilanti police Chief Amy Walker; the Rev. Keith Geiselmann of the First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti; Betty Stremich from the EMU Foundation; Diane Keller of the Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Regional Chamber; and Michael Manchester, attorney at Manchester and Associates.

Meals also is accepting donations from those who can't make the event, and those needing more information can call 734-487-9669.

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter. Contact the AnnArbor.com news desk at news@annarbor.com.