SURGE IN NEED
Meals on Wheels seeing an increase in demand among seniors
Head Chef Joshua Avila and his kitchen staff arrive each weekday morning long before the sun is up to begin prepping food for morning deliveries of Meals on Wheels in the Bakersfield area.
Delivery driver Anita Vega — and 10 other drivers — begin arriving at the senior center kitchen in east
Bakersfield later in the morning to load up and head out to their respective delivery destinations.
All of them are aware the need among seniors has been increasing.
“We are delivering more meals now than at any other time in the history of the Meals on Wheels program,” said Lito Morillo, director of Kern County Aging and Adult Services, which oversees the county’s program.
According to Kristian Besnard, the department’s senior nutrition program coordinator, Bakersfield has seen the need among seniors increase by 64 percent since the COVID-19 outbreak.
“In February 2020 (pre-pandemic), we served a total of 13,025 meals in Bakersfield,” Besnard said in an email.
In September, they served 21,311 meals.
Countywide, the growth was less extreme, yet still significant.
“We served 25,821 meals in February 2020. This figure rose to 32,565 meals in September 2020 ... a 26% increase in the number of meals served.”
For Joe McCoy, a 74-year-old resident of Kern City, a residential subdivision near West High School, the Meals on Wheels deliveries have been a godsend.
“It’s really important,” he said Fri
day. “At my age, it’s hard to get up and get around. And I don’t drive.”
A self-described retired “beer hauler,” McCoy has a daughter who helps look after him. But he says Vega, his “Meals” delivery driver, watches out for him and the other seniors on her delivery route.
“I don’t think you can get a better person than Anita,” he said. “Always a smile, always asks how I’m doing. It’s uplifting.”
The daily deliveries have long had these added benefits, Morillo said.
“We are doing wellness checks on our vulnerable seniors that we deliver to daily,” he said.
Vega, who has been delivering in the Kern City area for nearly three years, recalled finding one of her seniors one morning had collapsed or fallen.
She called for help and stayed with her until emergency services arrived.
“I recently lost one due to COVID,” she said. “Sometimes you do experience loss. One day, they’re just gone.
“I see it as if they are my grandmother or grandfather,” Vega said.
Chef Avila feels the same way, even though he doesn’t have regular contact with the seniors.
“I look at it this way,” he said. “They are like my family. If they are hungry, they get a meal.”