Meals on Wheels Feels the Crunch BALTIMORE CITY AND HOWARD COUNTY, MD (wypr) - A major feeding agency in Maryland may have to cut back service if high gas and food prices continue. WYPR's Stephanie Marudas reports as part of our occasional series, The Crunch, which details the impact of the economic downturn on local residents.

These are grim days for home meal delivery programs catering to the elderly and the sick. What used to be an affordable business model is now a financial coronary. In an era of steep energy and food prices, Tom Grazio at Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland wonders how much longer his organization can hang on.

We are operating at a deficit. We are looking at ways to save money. We will never compromise the quality of food we serve to people. But candidly, it cannot continue this way unless we find either a cheaper way to do it, or more money to get it done. This agency is at a bit of a crossroads.

Grazio arrives early at work in East Baltimore City when a team of employees swarm the loading dock.

They wear caps or hair nets, and cover their hands with gloves. They move briskly, and sweat as they push carts of food prepared earlier on site in the large commercial kitchen.
These employees load more than 20 vans before driving away to numerous distribution sites located across Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard Counties. Later on at those sites, volunteers like Breen and Dan Kershner pick up meals to deliver. Inside their car, this husband and wife team set out on a 40 mile delivery route serving 11 people.

Ok, onward to Lilian.

We're the only people they see during the day. And if we can take a couple minutes to put a smile on their face, then that's what it's all about.

What makes the Kershners typical Meals on Wheels volunteers is that they're retired. Meaning they're free in the middle of the day to make lunch deliveries. But they're feeling the latest economic pinch, and say finances are tight with their retirement income tied up in a rocky stock market. They figure they're on track to spend at least 1,000 dollars on gas this year delivering Meals on Wheels. Breen is thinking about scaling back from volunteering twice a week to maybe once a week or every other week.

It costs a lot more money for us to do it now. I just hope that it will never be a real big issue with me because I'd hate to give this up.

On their 2007 federal taxes, the Kershners checked off the 14-cent volunteer mileage rate deduction. But Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland executive director, Tom Grazio says that's not enough to keep volunteers, which is why he's supporting a Maryland-led congressional measure to increase the amount. In the meantime, Grazio says he's down 150 volunteers compared to last year at this time.

So what do we do when we don't have sufficient volunteers? We use our staff. And I fear that some day we'll come to work and there won't be enough staff to cover the routes. And that's where the agency gets to the point where we have to tell people they don't get to eat. And that's what concerns us.

Grazio worries his organization might have to place future clients on a waiting list, and turn away folks the agency can't afford to subsidize anymore. That's something, he says, the organization has never done.

Among the 1700 Meals on Wheels daily recipients in Central Maryland is 86-year old Lucille Custis. She's on the Kershner's Harford County route, and lives with her son and dog, Juju. Custis signed up for Meals on Wheels one year ago and receives 10 meals a week- Monday through Friday for 59 dollars.

I have sugar and I have high blood pressure. So I've been eating all those junks before. But now since I've been eating the Meal on Wheel, my doctor says my kidney is doing good. That's all I eat. I love it.

The Kershners leave Custis with a hot meal of turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans; along with a bag packed with fruit, bread, milk, juice, and cups of carrot raisin salad, seafood salad, and macaroni salad.

I'm Stephanie Marudas, reporting in Baltimore City and Harford County, for 88.1, WYPR.
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