Every other Thursday, Sarada looks forward to hearing a familiar knock at her door. It’s Eileen, her Home Delivered Meals diver from Catholic Community Services (CCS), bringing not only a two-week supply of meals, but also a moment of connection and care.
“Catholic Community Services was a godsend,” Sarada says.
For Sarada and hundreds of other seniors, Home Delivered Meals provide much more than food; they offer connection, dignity, and the support needed to live independently.
A Life-Changing Diagnosis
When Sarada was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, she was suddenly forced into an early retirement. She focused on maintaining her health and independence, but after undergoing an intense surgery, she found she lacked the physical capacity to perform everyday tasks.
“My meals seemed to be my biggest obstacle to overcome as far as my rehabbing,” Sarada says. “I didn’t quite have enough energy to complete a meal or to really fully take care of myself.”
Determined to find a solution, Sarada reached out to her insurance caseworker, who connected her with CCS. Our Home Delivered Meals program stepped up to provide Sarada with the meals she needed to recover healthily.
Together, Sarada and the Home Delivered Meals team worked to create a meal plan that would meet all her nutritional needs. The program started delivering 14 meals every other week, providing Sarada with reliable nutrition while she recovered.
Delivering Nutrition, Stability, and Compassion
Home Delivered Meals, sometimes referred to as “Meals on Wheels,” is a CCS program that has been providing vital nutrition to homebound seniors for more than 40 years. Drivers provide biweekly deliveries of frozen meals, consisting of a variety of options to meet different health needs. This year so far, Home Delivered Meals has served 595 seniors, providing a total of 57,713 meals.
Across the United States, almost seven million seniors face food insecurity. Among seniors, health conditions, lack of transportation, and fixed incomes can create barriers to accessing regular nutritious meals.
CCS aims to address this food insecurity with our targeted meal programs, Home Delivered Meals and 30 Senior Meal Sites. In total, these programs delivered 140,924 meals to seniors in the comfort of their own homes and served 100,624 meals at senior meal sites last year.
Steadfast Support
Today, Sarada has been receiving meals from Home Delivered Meals for more than 25 years. After recovering from her surgery, she met with the Home Delivered Meals team to reevaluate her meal plan. Together, they decided that nine meals every two weeks would best suit her long-term health and financial needs.
“I’ve been totally taken care of ever since,” Sarada says. “I’m able to keep myself well fed and in my own home.”
Now nearing her 84th birthday, Sarada still enjoys biking around her neighborhood and lives independently in her Pierce County home. She credits much of her continued health and independence to the steadfast support she has received from Home Delivered Meals.
“I am so blessed that I’m being taken care of,” Sarada says. “Catholic Community Serivices has done a wonderful job.”
There are still too many of our neighbors searching for the reliable access to food that Sarada has found through Home Delivered Meals. Across Washington state, one in eight people experience hunger, including one in six children. At CCS, we strive to address food insecurity with a constellation of nutrition programs serving people of all ages.
With cuts to the federally funded SNAP program, an estimated 517,000 families in Washington will lose partial or full access to their benefits. Please join us in stepping up to address this growing need for nutrition programs by making a gift to our Food is Love campaign today. Together, we can serve our neighbors facing food insecurity with love and compassion.