More than 120 seniors on a waiting list to receive Meals on Wheels

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - More than 120 Mesa County residents who have requested a hot meal be delivered to their front door from Meals on Wheels are on a waiting list.

Meals on Wheels relies on funding from the federal government; it’s decreased by about 20 percent this year. According to Amanda de Bock, the director of Meals on Wheels, at the beginning of the year, in the summer, they were serving around 800 meals every day, and in order to make it through the end of this year with the money they have available, the number needs to go under 550.

Those needing food assistance are provided with other resources, but de Bock mentions that the issue with most people who reach out is that they don’t have the physical ability to make their own meals, so it’s tough for a lot of them to make the trip to the food bank. “It’s heartbreaking; it is terrible,” said de Bock. “It’s very hard to ask for help to begin with and then to be told, essentially know that you have to wait; it gets people angry. They get sad; we’ve had people cry; and, to be perfectly honest, we’ve had people die while they were waiting. So they were on our waitlist waiting for food, and we had them off because they passed away.”

Meals on Wheels adds that senior services are never really funded the way that they should be, and they’re looking for donations.

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