Grant Helps Lutheran Service Society to Reach More in Need
Created on: Thu, 09/29/2011 - 9:39am
Lutheran Service Society has been awarded a grant of $50,000 from the Walmart Foundation and the Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA) through the Walmart Foundation-MOWAA Building the Future Vision Grant Program. This grant will support Lutheran Service Society's innovative efforts to reach more individuals in western Pennsylvania who have a need for Meals On Wheels services.
"We understand how difficult it is for isolated older adults and adults living at the margins to access healthy food," said Marc Bloomingdale, Lutheran Service Society president and CEO. "There is a prevailing belief that serving anything to someone in great need is better than nothing. We prefer to do better than that, by serving the low-income participants in our communities meals that we would happily serve to our own families. This grant is helping us to achieve that goal."
Over the next year Lutheran Service Society will utilize its grant award to hire a procurement specialist who will streamline the agency's purchasing, look to regional growers for sourcing, and develop new menus with fresh, seasonal, and culturally sensitive items. Lutheran Service Society will be testing these improved menus with a voluntary group of existing Meals On Wheels participants. The result? A high quality product that can be offered to everyone in the agency's program - and one that will attract a fee-for-service market of non-traditional Meals On Wheels participants.
By attracting a new market, Lutheran Service Society will be able to utilize the increase in revenues from those non-traditional participants to offset the costs of providing higher quality meals to the more vulnerable, low-income seniors in the area.
Another benefit to the community is that by emphasizing fresh, locally sourced product in its new menus, Lutheran Service Society will be supporting local growers.
Earlier this year, the Walmart Foundation announced a $5 million donation to MOWAA as part of a $2 billion commitment to support hunger relief efforts through 2015. It is the largest donation ever made to MOWAA by a corporate partner. More than $1 million of that $5 million donation will fund Vision Grants of up to $100,000 to 20 MOWAA Member programs. An additional $1.4 million from the Walmart Foundation donation was recently awarded to almost 100 MOWAA Member programs as Impact Grants of up to $20,000 to purchase stoves, refrigerators, trucks and other items that are critical to help serve seniors in need. The $2.4 million for the Building the Future Grants Program is the largest grant amount that MOWAA has ever distributed to its Member programs.
In addition to supporting the work of Lutheran Service Society, the Walmart Foundation-MOWAA Building the Future Vision Grant will improve the long-term operations of nineteen other Meals On Wheels providers across the country.
"The Walmart Foundation continues to step up to the plate in the fight against senior hunger," said Enid Borden, President and CEO of MOWAA. "They understand that joining Meals On Wheels in this battle is a moral imperative. The Walmart Foundation's generous support helps ensure our programs sustain meal services well into the future. We can't thank the Walmart Foundation enough for being such a powerful partner in our mission to end senior hunger in America by the year 2020."
"We know that seniors are among those hardest hit by hunger in this country. Many are home-bound, and rely on neighbors and community volunteer programs like Meals On Wheels to help put food on the table," said Julie Gehrki, senior director at the Walmart Foundation. "Through this $5 million grant, we hope to bring additional attention to senior hunger and help ensure our parents, grandparents and friends who have added so much to our lives have access to healthy and nutritious food."
Research sponsored by MOWAA reveals that more than six million seniors in America face the threat of hunger. The Walmart Foundation-MOWAA "Building the Future" Grant Program is intended to help combat senior hunger in America.
**Click to view a list of MOWAA Member programs receiving Vision Grants and Impact Grants**
