Meals on Wheels campaign kicks off for Christmas

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 28, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Meals on Wheels 16th annual “23 Days of Christmas” Campaign has officially kicked off with the goal of reaching an overall accumulated total of $375,000 to date.
The campaign is a partnership between Teamwork Training Ltd, Cuppers Coffee, Select People Solutions and the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization’s Meals on Wheels program.
Ryan Miller, president of Teamwork Training Ltd., spoke to media at the campaign launch Wednesday and said to reach that goal they need to raise approximately $30,000 this year.
“This year is off to an incredible start. December is fully booked and we are already filling spots into January,” said Miller.
The spots Miller referred to correspond to dates that meals have been sponsored for the whole day by either businesses, organizations or individuals.
“It’s been a long-term relationship with the Meals on Wheels organization and we’re very proud  to be able to have established a wall and have that goal. And the real true benefit of all that is the fact that these services still exist today in our community. An all of us know with
 He said this helps seniors in the community be able to receive a hot meal for a small price as the drastic cost of increased inflation and the cost of living, makes it harder to remain independently living, especially for those that have additional barriers or needs.
 “The Meals on Wheels organization is instrumental in providing the key service to support this and allow this to happen by providing one of the essential parts of independent living, a hot meal on a daily basis,” said Miller.
He said this campaign consists of giving the community an opportunity to sponsor to be an honorary chef of a specific day for the 23 days of Christmas.
 “They can do that by becoming a head chef which is sponsoring a full day at $1,000 or a sous chef which is sponsoring a half day for $500. And our goal is to be able to raise enough money through sponsoring each day of December to provide essential funding to help offset the cost of those meals,” said Miller.
For those who are unable to sponsor a full or half day of meals but who wish to contribute to the campaign can do so by purchasing MOW Christmas cards for $25 at Cuppers Coffee.
Rob Miyashiro, executive director of the LSCO, said this is very helpful for the organization as Meals on Wheels is the reason why LSCO always operates on a deficit.
“We run Meals on Wheels at a loss and we made a conscious effort as an organization to do that a few years ago. Especially since food costs have gone up and everyone is seen that inflationary pressure at the grocery store,” said Miyashiro.
 He said food security for people that have lower incomes is a very serious issue in Lethbridge and therefore, having community-minded organizations such as Teamworks, Cuppers and the sponsors that continue to support this campaign is instrumental for them to be able to provide hot meals for those who can only afford a very small fee in order to eat on a daily basis.
“Our packaging costs have gone up probably 40 per cent in the last three years because we use a special pack that is made of compressed cardboard with the vinyl thermal seal on top and we found that that’s the best way to get hot food to our customers,” said Miyashiro.
 He said they have well over 100 people a day depending on them for food and if they were to raise the price of their meals, people would buy less food, try to stretch it over multiple meals and potentially be “hangry” because they cannot afford the number of meals they need.
 “We’ve already seen that, people that can’t cook for themselves if they don’t order an extra meal for the weekend with us, they’re eating peanut butter and jam all weekend, that’s it,” said Miyashiro.
Nancy Graham with Cuppers Coffee said that they are more than happy to continue supporting the campaign for as long as it continues to run.
“If we can help by having people come in, purchase the cards, and then we purchased the gift of the meal for the Meals on Wheels folks, we love doing that,” said Graham.

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