From Senior Services of Southwest Michigan:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our communities and organizations, and Senior Services of Southwest Michigan is no exception. We have experienced an exponential increase in need for many of our essential services. As always, our Senior Services staff and our community has stepped up to the challenge.
Due to a drastic uptick in clients requesting meal delivery services, we have been awarded additional grant money from the nationally recognized Meals on Wheels America to meet these needs. Additionally, earlier this month, we 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:
* Service 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%
* Provide Kalamazoo County Emergency Operations Center meals on daily basis-approximately 250 per week
Over the last two weeks we have also screened 150 NEW volunteer applications, resulting in 94 individuals who have begun donating their time to deliver meals or make reassurance phone calls to our isolated and vulnerable clients. Meals on Wheels home delivered meal programs are designed specifically to meet the nutritional and social needs of seniors. Our new phone reassurance program provides socialization and well-check calls to seniors living in their own homes. Neither of these critical services would be functional without our volunteers.
While our offices remain closed to the public, our dedicated staff continue to respond to requests for service and inquires of volunteers. We encourage those interested in receiving meal services or volunteering to assist with delivery or phone reassurance to contact us by phone at 269-382-0515 or email using info@seniorservices1.org. If you are able to make a financial donation to our 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.
