Meals on Wheels stung by gas-price woes

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: May 23, 2008

Rocketing gas prices are keeping tourists home, jacking up food costs and threatening hungry shut-ins with skipped meals.

OK, so no one on the Meals on Wheels chuck wagon tour is going to starve. The local organization delivers hot meals five days a week, 52 weeks a year to hundreds of people who cannot cook for themselves. Officials are making sure the food keeps coming, but that doesn’t mean they don’t feel the strain.

Up and away

“Gas has gone up, up, up and food costs are up and we’re trying to find different ways to help out our clients and our volunteers,” said Mandy Hoy, the charity’s executive director. “Part of the problem is that, as prices have gone up, we’ve gained more clients. That’s made more work for our volunteers. As the economy has worsened, many more of our clients qualify for free or reduced[-price] meals and that impacts the amount of money we have to work with.”

Gasoline prices in the Charlottesville area are pushing 4 bucks a gallon.

In the past decade, Meals on Wheels has doubled its client base to about 200. It sets a sliding fee for food, based on the income of the eater. Ms. Hoy estimates that about 93 percent of the wheeled-meal clients either qualify for reduced rates or get meals gratis. The meals are prepared at the Kluge Children’s Rehabilitation Center and about 30 percent of the meals are designed for diabetics.

“That part of our operation is being hit by higher food costs,” Ms. Hoy said. “It’s tough out there.”

About 30 drivers who hit the streets one day a week tote the hot lunches. They pick up the food at 10:45 a.m. at the rehabilitation center’s Ivy Road kitchen and make their deliveries on a regular route. Dozens of drivers are on standby and fill in when the regulars are on vacation or not feeling so hot.

Extra help wouldn’t hurt

While there’s little the organization can do to lower costs, it’s hoping to keep down volunteers’ cost. One answer, officials think, is to get more volunteers. More drivers, Ms. Hoy postulates, means fewer miles traveled and less money and time spent.

“One route up U.S. 29 had 12 deliveries on it,” Ms. Hoy said. “That can take a lot of a volunteer’s time and gas, so we broke it into two routes. It gave our volunteers a break.”

Doubling the number of drivers isn’t that easy, Ms. Hoy admits. As gas costs rise, the willingness of drivers to help may be stymied by fiscal reality.

“If we can get more volunteers running smaller routes, that can be affordable,” Ms. Hoy said. “When the economy is terrible, our clients — who don’t have much to start with — have less and rely on us more. We don’t want them to suffer because people can’t afford to volunteer.”