March for Meals Month celebrates 63 Years of delivering more than food in Southwest Michigan

A good meal is both a daily pleasure and a basic necessity. But what if you can’t prepare food yourself and no friend or family member is available to help? If you’re 60 or older, Meals on Wheels can deliver hot, cold, or frozen meals to your door — often at no cost.

For those who don’t meet the age or eligibility requirements, other options are available. Food for All provides home-delivered meals to any resident of Kalamazoo or Calhoun counties who wants the service but does not qualify for grant-funded meals. At about $9 per meal, it’s a practical choice for people recovering at home or anyone who wants a supply of nutritious meals on hand.

Milestone Senior Services in Kalamazoo operates what it formally calls Home Delivered Meals, one of the first such programs in Michigan. In 1963, Helen Coover established Home Delivered Meal Service for “shut-ins,” a term no longer used.  The service used volunteers to deliver meals, a practice still used by Milestone, which is now a member of Meals on Wheels of America.

March for Meals by baking goodies 

Milestone delivers meals every weekday, and part of the funding comes from donations. A current fundraising effort includes a series of cooking classes held in March every year. Milestone’s announcement includes, “Want to hone your cooking skills or just have some fun with others in the kitchen? Grab your friends or make some new ones in our state-of-the-art, commercial kitchen while you learn some new culinary skills and techniques. This year, we are focusing on baking. 

“These cooking classes are part of our March for Meals campaign to raise awareness of the importance of healthy, well-balanced meals and to raise money for our Meals on Wheels program.”

The classes will be at Milestone Senior Services, 918 Jasper St., on Thursdays from 5 to 7:30 p.m.  The schedule is March 5, cookies; March 12, muffins; March 19, biscuits; and March 26, rolls. The cost is $50 per class, or register for the series for $175. Use this page to register or contact Taylor at (269) 382-0515, ext. 318.

Local officials customarily help promote March for Meals, and this year, Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson and City Commissioner Jeanne Hess will help. The mayor will meet with the volunteers and staff on March 6, and Hess will ride along on a Meals on Wheels route on March 9.

Here are recent statistics about Home Delivered Meals:

Kalamazoo County: Average number of clients served daily: 382.

Calhoun County: (managed by Kool Family Community Center in Battle Creek) Average number of clients served daily: 293.

The number of meals provided is much higher because some clients get more than one sometimes. Milestone also serves Allegan and Branch counties, and recently, the daily average number of meals provided (not the number of clients) was 410 in Allegan and 291 in Branch.

A secondary function of the meals program is acting as a “wellness check” on clients because many are older folks who live alone.  If there appears to be a problem, a volunteer will let the Milestone office know, and they then check with a family member.

Where a meal delivery becomes a lifeline

For 63 years, the Home Delivered Meals program has depended on volunteers to get the food to clients. Last year, 393 volunteers worked 21,106 hours. They serviced 32 routes across Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties.

One of those volunteers is John Ceglarek of Mattawan, who is nearing five years of service. “There are 11 routes that we run out of Kalamazoo, and at one time or another, I’ve done them all,” he says. “The routes that we do will probably average 20 to 25 people.”

Ceglarek retired after a 34-year career in Kalamazoo with The Upjohn Co. and its successor, Pfizer Inc. His job title was principal scientist, and he worked as a process microbiologist. 

He regularly drives a route in Kalamazoo’s North Side. “I’ve been scheduled on that route on Thursday and Friday for about four years,” he says. Last November, he added Wednesdays to his schedule after the driver who had been working that day had a medical issue.

“The nice thing about doing the same route over and over and over again is you do get to know the people. And so it’s a lot easier to tell on any given day if something’s not quite the way you think it should be,” Ceglarek says.

“Some of the clients don’t really want to chit-chat; they want their food, and that’s all they want. And you can tell — you deal with people enough, and you can tell who wants to talk and have a relationship and who doesn’t.  There are people who want to talk, and they want to get to know you, and you learn their names.

“On all the routes, you’ll find that the majority of the people are very gracious, they’re very polite, they say, ‘Thank you’. There are people on the route that know my name; they look for me to be there. When I’m not there, they wonder why I’m not there. It is, in a way, like a second family.”

Ceglarek continues, “One man said to me. ‘A lot of days, you people are the only company I get.’ And that’s true for a fair number of the people we go to. On a day-to-day basis, we might very well be the only people they see. And so you have to keep that in mind. Even if you’re not having a great day, you don’t want to show that to those people. You put on a happy face, and you be the best person you can be because that’s what they need.”

Ceglarek enthusiastically recommends volunteering for Meals on Wheels. 

“It’s very rewarding. You’re out there in the community, and you’re doing something that really does make a difference,” he says. “And the people really do appreciate it. And without all the people doing what we do, Milestone couldn’t do what they do. And that would leave a whole lot of people in a bind.” 

Aging Matters is a series that examines programs, issues, and solutions that impact today’s seniors. This series is sponsored by Milestone Senior Services.