#Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels

[meganmazurek]

5️⃣ Ways to Give Back this Holiday Season

During a season of immense excitement and joy, it can be easy to forget there are so many who are in need in our community. So many of our neighbors in the Ann Arbor area are facing the unimaginable: homelessness, addiction, hunger, domestic violence and other difficulties. But thankfully, there are many incredible organizations throughout Washtenaw County meeting those needs in tangible ways.

Here are 5️⃣ ways you can give back:

1️⃣ Volunteer With Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels or Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels

Hunger and food insecurity is one of the most pressing issues that needs to be addressed — and Meals on Wheels is actively meeting this need all throughout the country, including here in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels is a program of Community Health Services at Michigan Medicine bringing meals to the homebound in the area who are unable to shop and prepare complete, nutritious meals for themselves because of their health. And Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels delivers meals throughout Eastern Washtenaw County — with special holiday meals planned for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Volunteer to help provide this basic need in either Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti.

2️⃣ Help Stock the Food Pantry at SOS Community Services

The SOS Food Pantry offers free, healthy food to people who need it. This program makes sure that people do not have to choose between keeping their family housed or fed. The SOS food pantry offers rescued food from Food Gatherers as well as donations from the community. The food pantry, personal care items and baby supplies are supported by in-kind and monetary donations from local businesses, churches and schools throughout the year. Here is a list of items they need. 

3️⃣ Donate to the Hope Clinic’s Hope for Tomorrow Campaign Hope Clinic does it all, including providing medical and dental services, free food, care and prayer to anyone who needs it throughout our county. Support their mission of providing free care for the whole person by contributing to their Hope for Tomorrow Campaign. This campaign aims to raise $5.5 million, which will more than double the number of clients served by 2025. The funds will be directed to the areas that constitute the greatest need, including dental care, behavioral and mental health care, and endowment. Learn more about the Hope for Tomorrow Campaign and get involved here!

4️⃣ Shop the Amazon Wish List for the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County

The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County at the Delonis Center provides temporary shelter and connections in a safe and caring environment. Since 1982, the organization has worked with a diverse range of people struggling with homelessness, including first-time homelessness, veterans, domestic violence survivors, and people battling substance abuse and/or mental health issues. The SAWC offers a variety of services, including shelter, a food kitchen, a free medical clinic, and more. And in the colder months, the SAWC serves an additional 550 people in their Warming Center. To help support their mission, you can donate to SAWC — or shop directly from their Amazon Wish List, for needed items such as bedding, gloves, socks, underwear, clothing, cleaning supplies, bath and body products, and more.

5️⃣ Sign up to make dinner at Ronald McDonald House Ann Arbor 

You can sign up to create a wonderful home-cooked meal for RMHC Ann Arbor guest families, in the comfort of the fully equipped Main House kitchen, under the guidance of one of our certified food handlers for our Meals Matter program. Click here for more information or to sign up. 

[viralhottopics]

When Trump threatened Meals on Wheels, Americans stood up for the service in the best way

Ann Kondos, on the far left, is an 81-year-old Meals on Wheels client in Providence, Rhode Island.

Image: Stew Milne/AP/REX/Shutterstock

For the elderly, living at home alone can be difficult to say the least. Just getting the meals they need can be a struggle, and for many, Meals on Wheels has been the answer.

So when Trump’s budget proposal released Thursday threatened to slash all federal funding for the program, a whole lot of Americans were outraged. And they acted on that outrage.

SEE ALSO: Are foodie millennials really fueling food waste?

Following the news, 50 times the usual donations flooded into Meals on Wheels America in a single day, Yahoo! News reports. The organization also saw a whole lot of people offering up their time as well as their cash.

Jenny Bertolette, vice president of communications at Meals on Wheels, said it saw “an almost 500 percent jump in volunteer sign-ups” through their website AmericaLetsDoLunch.org.

The mass goodwill came after a social media storm of backlash.

When my dad was first showing signs of dementia & I couldn’t get to OH to get to him yet #MealsOnWheels SAVED him. Literally kept him alive.

yvette nicole brown (@YNB) March 16, 2017

Even Meals on Wheels itself explained exactly why taking away those public funds would be so destructive.

Cuts of any kind would be devastating for millions of vulnerable seniors. Our #SkinnyBudget statement: https://t.co/R2MkmuitBR #Budget2017

Meals on Wheels (@_MealsOnWheels) March 16, 2017

Homebound elderly people who may otherwise have to live in a nursing home are especially helped by the program. 2.4 million seniors including half a million veterans have received a total of 217 million meals through the program. It’s received $517 million in federal funding through the Older Americans Act, which supports social and nutritional services for Americans over the age of 60.

But all that would end under Trump’s proposal.

Image: meals on wheels

Trump’s budget outline takes away federal money for the program, as it strips away 17.9 percent of the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees programs under the Older Americans Act, as explained by Alison Foreman, the director of Meals on Wheels in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

She told The Washington Post that while some details around the budget cuts are not totally definitive, it’s clear that funding cuts will happen regardless.

And that means programs like Meals on Wheels won’t get the government support that’s helped them survive for years.

We realize it is unclear what the presidents proposal means for nutrition and aging programs, Foreman said in an email to the Post. The overall proposed funding cut of 17.9 percent for HHS, which includes the Older Americans Act funding for aging programs, is concerning.

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Read more: http://ift.tt/2mEDkpd

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