COOKING A CHALLENGE? HOMEBOUND MEALS TO THE RESCUE
Understanding Homebound Meals (HBM) is simplicity itself. “When we explain who we are, it’s easy for us to just say Homebound Meals On Wheels because you instantly get a picture of what we do,” describes Executive Director Barb Umber.
“If you’ve been around [the elderly] at all, or even low functioning adults, cooking is a real challenge. It’s just my husband and I, and we don’t want to do it.
Well, what happens when I’m physically unable to cook?” explains Umber. “We don’t have age requirements. The only rule we have is that it enhances your quality of life.”
Homebound Meals, Inc., a member of Meals On Wheels, serves all of Fort Wayne and (only recently) some of New Haven. Locally, HBM has almost 3 full Waynedale routes. Streets and cross streets Umber knows well. Her husband’s family has owned and operated Umber’s Hardware since 1944; she does the books in the back.
Homebound’s partnering medical facilities — Lutheran, Parkview, St. Joseph and Canterbury Rehabilitation — prepare the hot and cold nutritional meals, accounting for potassium, fiber and diabetes levels, granting gluton free and vegetarian requests.
The voluntary delivery drivers are asked to commit to only 1 hour a week, the span of a lunch break.
A client can apply for Homebound’s services over the phone or online. If a spot is available on a route, he or she can start receiving meals the Monday after their application’s been completed.
Umber can take on as many clients as she can find drivers. “So I’m always beating the streets [for more].”
Homebound is and has always been 100% funded by donations.
A HBM client is only charged the price of their meal; assistance is available for anyone who can’t pay full price. “The reason we’re able to do what we do is because of these volunteer drivers,” says Umber. “There are programs all over the country that are closing, have closed, or had to change because they were set up too dependent on government funding, and they’re stuck.”
In 1965, President Johnson crafted the Older Americans Act, encouraging government partnerships with local organizations to support the vulnerable who’ve fallen through the cracks. The creation of Homebound Meals was a response to that. “We don’t do 50 things. We do one thing, and we do it very well.”
Affordable meals for the homebound, delivered by a friendly face.
If you would like to volunteer, to donate money, or a can (or many cans) of healthy soup for clients before the oncoming, non-drivable winter months…or if you or a loved one needs meals delivered, contact Homebound Meals, Monday through Friday, 8:30am-12:30pm., 611 W. Berry Street, Phone: 260-422-3296. Website: www.homeboundmealsfw.org (or .com).
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