Charles County Serves Seniors with Meals on Wheels and Homebound Services

Charles County residents interested in Meals on Wheels or assistance when homebound should consider contacting the Charles County Cooperative Ministry on Aging Inc., the largest nonprofit volunteer organization that focuses exclusively on delivering hot meals and making telephone reassurance calls or visits to homebound seniors in Charles County.  CMA operates the county’s Telephone Reassurance Program, which began in 1986, and the Meals on Wheels Program, which began in 1988. 

Last year, 120 volunteer drivers delivered over 23,000 hot, nutritious meals to 172 clients.  “Our volunteer drivers deliver meals Monday through Friday to homebound senior citizens on eight different routes,” said Mildred Barnes, Program Director of CMA.  One of the routes is a frozen meal route to which meals are delivered on Monday only.

Under the Telephone Reassurance Program, about 21 volunteers call, visit, or write to over 65 homebound seniors regularly.  “Often the calls or visits from our volunteers are the only outside contact the senior may have in a day, a week, or sometimes in a month,” Ms. Barnes said.  Monthly calls range around 2,300, and visits average close to 600 per month.

To be eligible to receive meals, seniors must be 60 years or older, homebound, and  unable to provide suitable nutritious meals for themselves.  Spouses of eligible clients may also be eligible. 

Having a balanced hot meal delivered to the door each weekday contributes to the nutritional health of the seniors and reduces some of the hazards that go along with food preparation and cooking.  The volunteer drivers also provide an important daily contact for their meal recipients. They check on their well-being, and if the clients don’t answer the door to receive their meals, the drivers call an emergency contact. 

The meals are catered by the Charles County Public Schools at the Robert D. Stethem Education Center, and delivered to pickup points by drivers from the school system.  The meals are packed in insulated carriers and coolers that keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.           

Barnes welcomes new clients and volunteers to the Telephone Reassurance Program and new drivers and clients to the Meals on Wheels program.  Having more volunteers will enable the CMA to establish more routes, serve more clients, and reduce the number of days the current drivers deliver meals on some routes. 

To learn more about the Meals on Wheels and Telephone Reassurance programs, or to volunteer, please contact Mildred Barnes at (301) 392-6325.