Delivering meals & companionship
When Meals on Wheels Yolo County (MOW Yolo) provides locally prepared meals, its goal first and foremost is to offer nourishment to seniors who have challenges obtaining and preparing food for themselves. A close second is social engagement.
MOW Yolo is an independent, locally governed and operated nonprofit that is a member of Meals on Wheels America. MOW Yolo’s Home-Delivered Meals represent what the organization is best known for: delivering food directly to seniors’ homes with a personal touch.
“About 90 to 95% of all of our meal deliveries are performed by volunteers,” outgoing Executive Director Joy Cohan said. “Some of these volunteers get to know people on their routes and they form close relationships.”
These once or twice weekly1-2x/week deliveries of five frozen meals — which serve the majority of the more than 1,200+ seniors nourished by MOW Yolo — ensure food security for older adults age 60 and older with physical or cognitive barriers to accessing food and/or preparing meals. These check-ins also give the loved ones of those enrolled peace of mind, knowing that they’ll be alerted if a planned visit goes unanswered. The county’s four cities and rural areas, including Capay Valley, Knights Landing, Dunnigan, Clarksburg, and Esparto, are serviced by the delivery program.
To fulfill the social engagement aspect of the organization, Café Yolo Social Dining and Café Yolo To-Go are options provided by the organization. Café Yolo Social Dining hosts weekly congregate meals in senior and community centers in Woodland, West Sacramento, Esparto, Winters, and Davis. Occasional guest speakers discuss topics such as stroke and Alzheimer’s awareness, and nutrition. Sometimes, a volunteer may come to play guitar or offer other entertainment options.
Café Yolo To-Go distributes meals monthly at six senior housing complexes in the Ccounty while promoting socialization. As residents step out of their individual units to get their two monthly meals, they can engage with the organization’s volunteers, site staff, and neighbors. A virtual gathering also is being introduced following each meal distribution.
No matter where in the county seniors connect with these meals, they all emerge from MOW Yolo’s meal production facility in Winters, the Meals on Wheels-Sutter Health Senior Nutrition Center. About half of the organization’s 20 employees staff the facility, producing about 2,000 Registered Dietitian-approved meals each day. In addition to producing its own meals, the organization has engaged social enterprise partners — nonprofits that need such meals for their own programs. The facility now produces meals for adult day programs in Yolo County, and senior nutrition programs in the city of Chico as well as Colusa County. These partnerships help fund the organization’s programs.
This year, MOW Yolo embarked on its “EAT” campaign, to promote and support seniors’ ability to “Eat, Age, Thrive.”
“All of our programs are intended to support older adults to age in place, in their own homes, healthily and safely,” said Joy said. “It’s about nutritious food, but it’s about having a psychologically full life as well.”
Donations and volunteers are key to continuing to serve this persistent need. A recent generous funder enabled the organization to relieve a waitlist exceeding 200 seniors for the home-delivery program. MOW Yolo relies on volunteer support throughout the year, particularly for delivery routes where the need outpaces the number of volunteers, such as in West Sacramento.
“The 2020 Census tells us that there are about 8,000 seniors living in poverty in Yolo County, and likely food insecure as a result,” Joy said. “It’s always important to think about: what would our community look like without a program like this?”
