For Meals on Wheels increases in NW Georgia

Since the pandemic started almost a year ago, the Northwest Georgia Area Agency on Aging has seen a rise in need for their Meals on Wheels program.

Still, Director Lynne Reeves said they’ve been doing well over the past year and that they have pulled in additional meal providers to meet the need. In January alone, they’ve helped deliver 31,561 meals to seniors in the 15-county region.

As part of adjusting to the pandemic and increased need, they’ve had to cut back on delivering hot meals and now provide a week’s worth of frozen meals for some of their clients.

Even though they’re now stopping by just once a week, volunteers call their senior clients to make sure they’re OK and to see if there’s anything else they might need.

In August, the agency reopened nine of their facilities — including the Floyd County center.

While they’re still not at full capacity, Reeves said they’re happy to be open again and facilitating much needed face to face interaction.

The next project Reeves and the agency will be focusing on is helping the Georgia Department of Public Health get the COVID-19 vaccine to homebound seniors.

One of the major issues they’ve run into is scheduling appointments for seniors who don’t have Internet access. They hope to continue working with the DPH and have more information on vaccinating seniors in the coming weeks.

To contact the agency regarding Meals on Wheels and other services, call the service number, 1-800-759-2963.

Anyone looking to volunteer can also call the service number, but will most likely be directed to Reeves or the assistant director, Lindsay Wilson.