Program offers meals to elderly

How far will Leonard Poppe go to get a good meal?

Most days, he need only go as far as his front door.

Poppe, 86, lives in Scribner and is among residents now involved in a Meals on Wheels program. One day earlier this week, Poppe received a chicken meal with mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetable and dessert. Poppe said the meals taste good and keep him from having to cook something for himself.

“It’s wonderful for me,” he said.

He’s not alone.

Since September, residents in this small rural town have been able to get a well-balanced noon meal, five days a week. Organizers believe the program is an important one for older people who might not get out much -- especially during the winter -- and for those with a medical condition.

Meals on Wheels isn’t new to Scribner. It’s been offered for years -- but without the community volunteers.

“If you were a person who wanted a meal -- and if you had someone who would volunteer to deliver it -- it was available, but we didn’t have the good volunteer support,” said Linda Muller, dietary manager at Good Samaritan Society in Scribner.

The town also had the Milligan Over 60 Center until it closed three years ago due to lack of participation, said former manager Donnetta Gebers, who worked there

30 years.

At its peak, the center had an attendance of about 45.

“In those days, when grandpa retired from the farm, he needed something to do,” she said.

But with farms getting bigger and ag populations decreasing, there just aren’t those numbers of retired farmers. Active seniors are working or traveling and don’t have time to come to a center, she said.

Gebers still helps out at centers in Dodge and Snyder, which each are open one day a week. Some of the people who used to attend the Scribner center will drive to Snyder. Former Scribner attendees said they miss the center there, Gebers said.

With the center gone, a void existed.

Then the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American provided a grant for a program called ERMAA (Expanding Rural Ministries to Aging Adults.)

The program is designed to coordinate efforts among area churches to provide services to the elderly in smaller communities, said Joyce Vavricek, parish nurse at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Scribner.

Vavricek said four Scribner churches participate in the meals program. They are: St. Lawrence, St. Peter’s Lutheran, United Church of Christ and United Lutheran. Between 15 to 18 volunteers from these churches take turns delivering the meals.

The Scribner program isn’t federally funded or associated with the nationwide program. Organizers use the Meals on Wheels name because people identify with it.

“People understand what it is,” Vavricek said.

The program works like this:

n The Good Samaritan Home provides meals at cost. The elderly person or one of his family members calls the Good Samaritan home to sign up.

“We have gift certificates available. Otherwise we bill at the end of the month and can send the bill to whomever,” Muller said.

n Menus are sent at the start of the month to regular customers. Muller said meals can be adjusted to meet special dietary needs.

n Church volunteers pick up the meals at 11:30 a.m. and deliver them between that time and noon, Vavricek said.

Muller said the program began with one woman getting meals.

“We’re up to about five, but not full time,” she said. “I have two people who get meals every day and a third who gets them a couple times a week. And another couple, they get them on call as needed,” she said.

Muller believes the program offers various benefits.

“This time of year, a lot of people don’t get out and they don’t cook for themselves the way you do when you have a family,” she said. “A lot of people don’t eat the way they should at home. This gives them the opportunity for a well-balanced meal.”

Muller also believes it’s good for older people to have someone stop by each day.

“Otherwise you might not see anybody for three or four days,” she said.

Vavricek cites other benefits.

“You’re taking care of your community. In a small town, people take care of one another. This gives us a more organized means to do that,” she said.

She also likes the way it’s brought people of different faiths together.

“It’s been great to work with the other people,” she said. “It’s truly a non-denominational thing and we have a lot of fun at the same time.”