What’s in a name? In the case of several area nonprofits that serve meals to homebound residents, apparently a whole lot of confusion.
Officials from two organizations that distribute meals to residents in Hamilton and Lawrence are expressing concern over changes recently made by Meals on Wheels of Trenton/Ewing that left some people wondering if the other organizations had shut their doors.
But officials from both Lawrence Township Meals on Wheels and Mobile Meals of Hamilton have moved quickly to assure their clients that they are alive and well.
At the end of 2015, the American Red Cross of Central Jersey relinquished its contract to serve meals in Princeton, West Windsor, East Windsor and Hightstown, as well as certain areas of Hamilton and Lawrence, in order to shift its focus elsewhere within the organization.
In January, Trenton/Ewing announced that it was expanding its services to cover those areas previously served by the Red Cross. It also announced that it was changing its name to Meals on Wheels of Mercer County to reflect the fact that it is now serving communities throughout the county.
Meals on Wheels and similar programs provide nutritious meals at little or no cost to senior citizens and other adults who are homebound, disabled or otherwise be unable to maintain a balanced meal. The organizations subsidize the cost of the meals through donations and government grants.
Sasa Olessi Montaño, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, said that her organization made a decision to take on the participants in the Red Cross’ program when it heard that they were stopping their service. They also applied for—and received—money from an annual grant offered by the Mercer County Office on Aging to help subsidize the cost of meals to lower income residents.
But the change impacted organizations in Hamilton and Lawrence, said officials from those organizations.
Bill McCarroll, chairman of the board of trustees of Lawrence Township Meals on Wheels, said that in mid-January, he started getting phone calls from people who participate in the program as well as from donors asking why the organization was shutting down. But business was as usual for the nonprofit, founded in 1982, which delivers 5,500 and 6,000 meals annually to between 25 and 30 clients.
“They’re (Meals on Wheels of Mercer County) doing good work—there’s no question about that, and we applaud them for it. But this has caused problems for us,” McCarroll said. “We don’t want anyone to have the impression that we’re suspending operations.”
Around the same time, Eileen Eversheim, executive director of Mobile Meals of Hamilton Township, received similar queries regarding her program. Mobile Meals was operating just as it has since 1975, yet for some reason, people who heard about Meals on Wheels of Mercer County feared that the Hamilton program was being suspended.
“It confused people who are smarter than me,” Eversheim said. “A lot of people didn’t know what was going on, and were thinking that Trenton/Ewing was taking over here in Hamilton.”
She added that officials from Mobile Meals’ meal provider, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton, even questioned her about the situation.
The main concern, she explained, is regarding donations to the organization. Mobile Meals runs on a tight budget, and every dollar is needed to help pay for the meals it serves. The organization doesn’t accept government funding—its board doesn’t want to be limited by rules that require them to only serve people 60 or older—and depends on the generosity of local organizations, businesses and private individuals.
The fear by both Eversheim and other Mobile Meals officials is that donors might mistakenly donate to Meals on Wheels of Mercer County when they intend to give money Mobile Meals.
Montaño said that her organization’s name was changed to reflect its new coverage area, and that any confusion caused was unintentional. “I don’t think Meals on Wheels of East Windsor, Ewing, Hamilton, Hightstown, Lawrence, Princeton, Trenton, West Windsor was a viable name,” she said.
The confusion was compounded by an article in the Times of Trenton on Jan. 15 reporting Meals on Wheels of Trenton/Ewing’s expansion and name change. The byproduct of the situation was that some people believed that Meals on Wheels of Mercer County was absorbing the Hamilton and Lawrence organizations, said McCarroll and Eversheim.
“People are confused about who they should call now to get meals,” McCarroll said. “Our director Joyce [Stillwell] has gotten several calls on this. I have heard remarks from other people asking, ‘Are we going out of business?’”
For example, Betty Okeson, who has been using Lawrence Township Meals on Wheels for the last two years and previously served on the organization’s board for 25 years, said when she heard the news about Trenton/Ewing’s expansion, she thought the local organization she loved was being taken over.
Okeson, who turns 93 in August, said she didn’t want to stop seeing the volunteers who bring her meals.
“The people that come are so nice,” Okeson said. “They are Lawrence Township residents, and I know all of them.”
Montaño said Meals on Wheels of Mercer County hasn’t received calls from the public regarding any confusion, and that both the Lawrence and Hamilton organizations were informed last year that they would be expanding their program into those municipalities.
“The Red Cross knew very early last year that they were pulling out, and informed everybody, including the county, us and Hamilton in March,” Montaño said. “They gave everybody ample time to know they were going to be pulling out. In addition, they worked with both Hamilton and us as to who their clients were and where they were located.”
Eversheim and McCarroll insist that the first time they learned of the name change was when they read the Times story in January. Eversheim said that when she read about the change, she feared it was going to cause confusion.
Montaño counters that she finds the complaints about the name change “perplexing.”
“There wasn’t an issue when the Red Cross was serving, but there is an issue when we’re serving,” she said. “When I notified them both (Hamilton and Lawrence) that we got the grant and we would be coming into these areas, it was Hamilton that said, ‘Well, you’re Trenton/Ewing, that will be confusing to people.’”
“They should be happy to eliminate the confusion (with the name change).,” she said. “What would really be confusing would be someone with the name Trenton/Ewing coming into Hamilton.”
She also pointed out that the name change reflects the trend that most Meals on Wheels organizations that serve several municipalities take on the name of the county, whether they’re serving the whole county or not.
Montaño said Meals on Wheels of Mercer County is the largest provider of subsidized meals in the county, with 70 percent of its clients receiving subsidized meals. The organization currently serves close to 250 people and has 150 volunteers.
The meals are prepared at ARC Mercer in Ewing and delivered by the volunteers. Meals are delivered once daily by volunteers, and participants receive their meals between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Menus rotate on a monthly cycle and vary in daily selections, with dishes that offer ethnic and cultural variety such as Italian, Latino, German, Asian and American.
“We’re driven by community needs and to make sure that everyone is served,” Montaño said. “We are blessed that at least for now our philosophy is we turn nobody away and we have no waiting list.”
She also points out that her organization was asked to take over the program in Princeton, which has been a success.
“Initially, everyone was concerned, but it’s turned out that they were very pleased that we could step up and take the program under our wing and grow the program,” Montaño said.
While each organization operates independently, they do sometimes lean on each other for support.
Eversheim said there are occasional situations where someone is in need of a service, but the volunteers are unable to alter their route to make it to an area in the far reaches of the township. During those circumstances in the past, she would call the Red Cross to temporarily serve the person until Mobile Meals could take over. In the future, Eversheim said she will continute that same practice with Meals on Wheels of Mercer County.
Mobile Meals has 40 volunteers who deliver meals to any homebound adult of Hamilton five days a week. Each year, it delivers roughly 20,000 meals, and the number of residents it serves fluctuates between 80 to 100.
Each meal costs $5.50, but Eversheim said if someone is unable to afford the meals, she will meet with them and review their financial siutation and can then offer them a reduced cost or free meals based on a sliding scale. Eversheim said there are currently about 22 residents who are receiving subsidized meals.
McCarroll said Lawrence Township Meals on Wheels works in a similar fashion to Mobile Meals. It also provides meals to any adult in the township who is homebound or unable to prepare their own meals.
Lawrence Meals on Wheels charges a flat rate of $4.50 for each meal, but Stillwell, the organization’s executive director, said it offers subsidized meals to clients who meet certain financial requirements. It currently subsidizes 15 to 20 percent of their meals, McCarroll said, and has roughly three dozen volunteers who help deliver the meals—which are also prepared at ARC Mercer—to residents Monday through Friday.
“We do not receive any government funding at all,” McCarroll said. “We raise all our money from local businesses, donations and local foundations.”
Stillwell suggested that since Meals on Wheels of Mercer County has funding to provide Lawrence residents with subsidized meals, they can work together to ensure all residents are being taken care of.
For example, she said, Lawrence Meals on Wheels has a budget for its subsidized meals, and if it goes over budget, but residents still need them, it can work with Meals on Wheels of Mercer County to get the necessary meals to the residents in need.
Montaño said that even back when her organization was only serving people in Trenton/Ewing, it would received calls from people asking if they serve residents in Lawrence, Hamilton or other municipalities. She said it always referred them to the proper meal provider, and it plans to continue to refer residents in the areas of Hamilton and Lawrence that it doesn’t serve, just as the Red Cross did before them.
Montaño added that everyone should be working together to make sure that no one falls through the cracks.
“Together we are stronger,” she said.
For more information about Mobile Meals of Hamilton call (609) 448-4088. Lawrence Township Meals on Wheels can be reached at (609) 392-0001, and Meals on Wheels of Mercer County can be reached at (609) 695-3483.
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