Founded in 1967, Mobile Meals of Toledo is an indispensable resource to those in need, providing home deliveries with nutritionally rich meals. “We provide meals to people’s homes, typically for the homebound, disabled, elderly, and people with special dietary requests,” explains Associate Executive Director Carolyn Fox. “There are many different reasons people are on the meal program.” Those reasons include being temporarily bedbound post-surgery, or being unable to cook meals for your children if you are undergoing medical treatments. “There are no age restrictions,” Fox said. “Anybody who needs help can receive meals.”
How To Apply
Medicaid and Medicare clients receive the service for free, but Mobile Meals makes meals delivered to your home affordable for everyone by using a sliding scale, based on income. To apply, simply call with basic financial information, including monthly income, mortgage or rent payments, and property tax payments.
The options for meal delivery are one to two meals per day, but Fox points out that the two meals have everything you need for the day nutritionally. Each day comes with two choices per meal, and there’s no cooking required. “All of our meals are fully prepared,” Fox says. “They just have to be warmed up in the microwave.”
Schools and Pets
While home delivery is Mobile Meals’ most popular service, they also have the Weekender Program, which helps children who don’t have enough food at home to get through the weekend. Teachers communicated to Mobile Meals that many kids were unable to concentrate on Mondays because they had gone hungry for so long over the weekend. Now in its 11th year, the program serves eight area schools.
Another service that Mobile Meals provides is their pet food delivery program. After hearing from 88 clients who requested pet food assistance, the organization began the deliveries. Sometimes lower income pet owners will feed their pets before they feed themselves, so it is important to make sure that doesn’t happen. Fox says that the pets are not just important as companions for their clients, the animals are a therapeutic part of their lives. “In many of the neighborhoods we serve, pets are an important part of security.”
How to Get Involved
The work of caring volunteers makes Mobile Meals. Sign up to make deliveries in your area of Toledo, or you donate online, specifying which part of the program you would like your money to go to, even dedicating your donation in memory of someone you’ve lost.
Mobile Meals currently helps about 500 people per day, and Fox says it makes a huge difference in people’s lives. “I think the main thing is that clients get to stay in their own home and be independent versus going to a nursing home or assisted living
situation.”
To learn more, visit mobilemeals.org
or call 419-255-7806
