Thanks to a pair of generous donations, including from town resident Paul Simon, one of New Canaan’s most essential human services providers is ramping up its efforts to serve clients even better.
Meals on Wheels of New Canaan, a volunteer organization established in 1972, operates out of Waveny Care Center and pays its expenses largely through an annual campaign each March, according to Cindy Herbert, president of the nonprofit’s Board of Directors.
Within the last year, two unexpected things happened. First, Meals on Wheels in the summer received a $20,000 gift through a private foundation, then in December, Simon following a concert for the Michael J. Fox Foundation directed a $100,000 gift to Meals on Wheels, Herbert said. (Simon’s wife, Edie Brickell, volunteers as a Meals on Wheels delivery driver.)
The funds have gone right back into the organization, in the form of upgrades to food packaging and availability, as well as a new position within Meals on Wheels that’s designed to boost its reach and effectiveness, Herbert said.
Cindy Herbert, president of Meals on Wheels stands between Sperry DeCew (L) and BJ Flagg (R) of the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan at the nonprofit organization’s April 9, 2015 meeting. Credit: Michael Dinan
“This is an insurance policy for us,” Herbert said Thursday after giving a talk to the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan at the Roger Sherman Inn.
“We are a very efficient organization, and as the demand continues to grow for people staying in town, we are able with these contributions to move the efforts forward faster. To be able to get word out with Meals on Wheels, to interface with organizations in the community—we are able to do that because we have this reserve for next four, five years without expecting more from people. In essence, what that $100,000 in particular has done is that we can reach further into the community without overextending ourselves and our resources, which was paramount.”
Dozens of town residents each day receive home deliveries of hot and cold meals through Meals on Wheels’ volunteer drivers.
With the $20,000 grant, the organization was able to: adjust its fee structure so that meals were more widely available to clients; offered thermal coolers to clients where needed so that food was kept at a good temperature even if the individual receiving the meal wasn’t home at the time of delivery; and changed its packaging so that meals could be frozen or microwave-heated, giving clients more options for what they ate when, Herbert said.
Simon’s gift will help fund a new position at Meals On Wheels, Herbert said. In the past, the organization’s lone salaried job—a program coordinator (who technically is a WCC employee, though the wages are paid by Meals on Wheels)—has been responsible not only for the logistics of preparing and packaging meals, setting routes and arranging for drivers, but also interacting with clients.
Now, anticipating growth and with an eye on making sure that everyone who is right for Meals on Wheels knows that the service is here for them—for example, not just home-bound residents but also those who, for any reason and length of time, cannot shop and cook for themselves—the duties will be split into two jobs.
A new “community coordinator” is expected to start at Meals on Wheels very soon and “will be the face of Meals on Wheels in the community,” Herbert said.
“It will be outreach,” she said. “We want to interface with other organizations that have clients that maybe should not about us. One of the biggest things to get out is that people should understand Meals on Wheels is for people who are coming out of rehab and need help for three weeks, or a week, or a situation where someone falls and breaks their wrist, where we can be a source of comfort for one week or three weeks.”
Often, Meals on Wheels’ drivers mark the single social interaction that a client may have on a delivery day, and gifts such as those from Simon and the private foundation (from a local individual who has chosen so far to remain anonymous) help the organization realize initiatives it has been wanting to pursue for some time, Herbert said.
“We have had an idea of what we wanted to do, but we have to work within what we can afford, and we are in a time when a lot of people are asking for things. There is a lot of benevolence in this town. It is quite extraordinary. But a lot are asking for things. There is only so much that can go around.”