Jewish Colorado brings kosher meals to seniors
The matzo ball soup delivered to 97year-old Arnie Sherwood was prepared in a kosher kitchen and blessed by a rabbi before it arrived on his doorstep.
Five days each week, Sherwood receives a hefty meal— enough for lunch and dinner— through Jewish Colorado’s nutrition maintenance program.
On a sunny day in November, driver Sheila Hogan arrived with the hot soup, plus an orange, a slice of fresh-made bread and a container of roasted chicken, rice and glazed carrots.
“I look forward to seeing her, and to the food,” said Sherwood, who ate the soup at his kitchen table while his 9pound black poodle, Pepper, ate lunch out of a dish on the linoleum floor.
Sherwood, a retired pharmacist who has lived alone since his wife died in 2014, is one of about 80 Jewish seniors who receive kosher-prepared meals through the program. About half of those seniors eat lunch together at the Jewish Community Center, while the rest, including Sherwood, receive food at home through the program modeled after Meals on Wheels.
The program is primarily funded by Volunteers of America, but Jewish Colorado kicks in the extra funding to make the meals kosher, said Nneka McPhee, chief of staff for Jewish Colorado. Jewish Family Service administers the program, coordinating deliveries and determining who is eligible. Seniors who receive meals at home must be Jewish.
It costs extra for kosher meals because they are prepared under the Jewish dietary laws of kashrut in a kitchen overseen by a supervisor called a mashgiach. Dairy and meat are not served together, there is no pork or shellfish, and fruits are generally served whole.
Besides the meals, clients also receive “blizzard boxes” in case a storm interrupts daily delivery.
Hogan, a retired postal worker, delivers meals Monday through Friday, four hours per day. When she arrives at Sherwood’s home, she is greeted by tiny Pepper as she unloads the food on the kitchen counter and calls, “Hi, Arnie.” She chats for a bit with Sherwood, sometimes about wine or the weekly menu. She recently was able to meet one of Sherwood’s three children, who was in town for a visit.
“I love this job,” Hogan said. “When I first started, I didn’t know how I was going to take some of the sadness involved, but it’s turned out to be very rewarding.”
At first, the deliveries reminded Hogan of the years she took care of her mother before she died. But now, she said, most of her deliveries make her happy because clients usually answer the door smiling and ready to hug her.
Sherwood, who has lived in his southeast Denver home for 55 years and was married for 70, began receiving the kosher meals in 2011, before his wife died at age 91. She signed them up.
“My wife would be asking me what were we going to have for dinner tonight,” he remembered. “I was happy to leave it up to her. She was much smarter than me.”