Food assistance programs continue to serve seniors in the face of COVID-19 outbreak

Food assistance programs in Orange County are working to serve seniors in the community despite the challenges COVID-19 has presented.

The Orange County Rural Alliance, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels and Orange Congregations in Mission (OCIM) are food delivery programs that serve different areas of Orange County’s senior community. These organizations serve people over the age of 60 who are compromised in some way that prevents them from preparing meals themselves, OCRA President Norma White said.

The most vulnerable population for COVID-19 are older adults and people who have serious underlying medical conditions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Delivering food to this group has greater challenges now that volunteers also must be concerned about preventing the spread of the disease. All three organizations have adjusted their delivery services to include greater cleaning and sanitizing efforts, both before and after each delivery to a recipient.

Instead of doing their usual daily deliveries, OCRA and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels have decided to deliver at once enough food for two weeks to their recipients in order to ensure that they will have enough food if the organizations are unable to make deliveries during that time.

The food they are delivering includes five frozen meals and five shelf-stable meals, along with any extra shelf-stable food they can supply, Rachel Bearman, executive director of Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels, said.

White said while OCRA won’t be making any deliveries for the next two weeks, they will be calling seniors to see how they are doing.

“Unfortunately, it’s sort of impersonal, not personal enough,” she said. “But, we can’t do that. We can’t shake their hands. We can’t give them a hug. We can’t speak face-to-face with them. We can’t do that — for their protection and for our protection.”

Bearman said Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels is planning to switch to once a week delivery of frozen and shelf-stable meals if the restrictions they face with COVID-19 allows for it.

“Our goal was to try to get as much food as possible into the hands of our recipients, with as little contact as possible,” she said.

Bearman said they have also set up a volunteer group to call meal recipients each day to check on them, make sure they are healthy and remind them that they have meals to eat.

Many of the recipients they serve do not have other food sources, so Bearman said it is important to make sure they have enough food or to help them find other sources of food as well. 

Rev. Sharon Freeland, executive director of OCIM, said they are still planning to deliver meals five days a week.

She said many of their clients can’t come to the door unassisted and can’t make meals for themselves, so they need to continue delivering meals every day. 

One challenge all three organizations share is that many volunteers who deliver food are also part of the vulnerable population who would be most affected by COVID-19: people over the age of 60. Bearman said Meals on Wheels is asking those volunteers to consider not doing in-person volunteering at this time. 

Freeland said OCIM has had some vacancies in volunteers because of the COVID-19 outbreak, but they have been able to manage so far. She said the volunteers they have are very committed to serving their community, and they will continue to deliver as long as they can.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Freeland said. “But, we’ve been doing this since 1981, and we are committed to serving those seniors in our community who don’t have access to a meal during the day.”

Bearman said Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels has received an increase in volunteers since work, school and other obligations have become remote. She said the biggest challenge for them is financial because they have had a lot of expenses that aren’t budgeted for due to their efforts to get food out as quickly as possible. 

“We have been serving and doing as much as we possibly can, in hopes that the funds will follow later,” she said.

All of these organizations are working to keep volunteers and recipients in high spirits while maintaining the good health of everyone involved.

Bearman said this virus has given a lot of attention to the needs of the older members of the community who aren’t often thought of in regards to hunger needs. 

“It’s sort of highlighted for us what a, almost, silent work that goes on regularly for those who serve this population,” she said. “My hope would be that we move forward. And, after this, that it doesn’t then become silent again.”

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