Meals On Wheels: We're Here If You Need Us Mahwah

About 50 people in Mahwah are receiving Meals on Wheels deliveries, and according to Pascack Valley Meals on Wheels Director Jeanne Martin, “it should be more.”

According to Martin, “behind Hillsdale, the second highest population of senior citizens in our coverage area is in Mahwah. There are many more people that we should be reaching here, but either they don’t know about us, or they are too proud to call.”

Martin shared the statistics with township Mayor Bill Laforet during a visit earlier this month. As part of the organization’s “Mayors for Meals” initiative, mayors all over the country are delivering meals to their residents during the month of March.

Laforet joined Martin and one of the Mahwah Meals volunteers to deliver meals to residents because “they do such important work in our community,” he said. “There is really no way to understand it better than a first-hand experience.”

The program “is all about awareness,” Martin said. “The people we deliver to are the silent members of the community, they are the people that mayors don’t usually see.”

The Pascack Valley chapter of Meals on Wheels has been delivering meals to Mahwah residents since 2005, when the Red Cross could no longer sustain its food deliveries in the township. Since then, the program has grown from making deliveries along two routes in the township to four.

This year, the organization added a route along Stag Hill Road to its deliveries in the township. "Getting the 'meals on the mountain' up and running was huge," Martin said. "The Ramapough community there can be very isolated, and I am so glad that we are starting to help those in that area who need it."

The deliveries across the township are carried out by a team of volunteers – about 80 in Mahwah and Ramsey who go out on runs in the area.

The “vast majority” of Meals on Wheels clients are senior citizens, Martin said. “It’s not always the people you would expect. I’ve delivered meals to seniors who are unexpectedly living with their kids in multi-million dollar homes. But, the kids aren’t home and the seniors need the help with putting together or preparing meals.”

Seniors and others who qualify for meals on wheels need to reach certain eligibility requirements, and pay $7.35 per meal, “which is about what it costs us to get it and deliver it to them,” Martin said. The payment can be subsidized, though, if clients cannot afford it, she said.

Several seniors along the ‘Mayors for Meals’ route said they greatly appreciate the help the program provides. “[Meals on Wheels] provides a wonderful service,” one resident shared with Laforet during her delivery. “I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

For the mayor, he said the deliveries were an “eye-opening” experience. “What stood out most to me is that the food is only part of what the volunteers bring people,” Laforet said. “The interaction means so much. Just the few minutes that we spent with people, their faces lit up. They were so happy to have someone to talk to.”

Get more information about being a client of or volunteer for the Pascack Valley chapter of Meals on Wheels here.