Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo  series and our ongoing COVID-19 coverage. If you have a story of how the community is responding to the pandemic please let us know here.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread, Senior Services of Southwest Michigan reports it has experienced an exponential increase in need for many of its essential services. 

“As always, our Senior Services staff and our community has stepped up to the challenge,” says Susan Terranella, Marketing Manager for Senior Services of Southwest Michigan.
 
Due to a drastic uptick in clients requesting meal delivery services, Senior Services has been awarded additional grant money from the nationally recognized Meals on Wheels America to meet these needs.

And earlier in April, Senior Services partnered with United Way of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region and their Disaster Relief Fund to receive funding to support this increased need. Both emergency fund resources have aided in our ability to:

• Serve 219 new meals clients in one week;
• Build an inventory of more than 2 weeks of frozen/shelf-stable meals for each client;
• Increase meal delivery service in March to nearly 40,000 meals--up 10,000 meals since February 2020;
• Field a weekly agency call volume increase of 50 percent;
• Provide Kalamazoo County Emergency Operations Center meals on daily basis—approximately 250 per week

Over the last two weeks Senior Services has also screened 150 new volunteer applications. As a result, 94 individuals have begun donating their time to deliver meals or make reassurance phone calls to Senior Services’ isolated and vulnerable clients. 

Meals on Wheels home delivered meal programs are designed specifically to meet the nutritional and social needs of seniors. Senior Services’ phone reassurance calls is a new program that provides socialization and well-check calls to seniors living in their own homes. Neither of these critical services would be functional without the organization’s volunteers, says Terranella.

“While our offices remain closed to the public, our dedicated staff continue to respond to requests for service and inquires of volunteers,”  says  Terranella.

Senior Services encourages those interested in receiving meal services or volunteering to assist with delivery or phone reassurance to contact them by phone at 269-382-0515 or email using info@seniorservices1.org.  

If you are able to make a financial donation to Senior Services’s critical programs at this time, please visit our Friends of Senior Services page.

Senior Services continues to provide our other critical services including but not limited to behavioral health programs, home care, and resource information. We understand that these needs do not simply disappear in these difficult times, and we remain dedicated to empowering the people we serve to thrive in their community.

During times when there is not a pandemic,  on any given day, Senior Services of Southwest Michigan touches over 1,500 lives through its many programs and services. Its mission is “to provide options that empower people to thrive in their community” through home delivered meals, home safety modification services, behavioral health programs, home care, resource information and many other services. To learn more, please visit us online here www.seniorservices1.org, call us at (269)-382-0515, or follow us on Facebook for updates.