This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Many clients at Longmont Meals on Wheels - seniors and people with disabilities in Longmont, Niwot and Hygiene - cannot afford to pay anything for a hot, nutritious meal and daily wellness check. Please help us by sponsoring one of these clients who simply cannot afford to pay anything for their meals. $120 supports a homebound senior for a month of meals and wellness visits. Longmont Meals on Wheels works to promote the
health, independence and safety of our clients through good nutrition and social interaction. We help frail elderly with proper, affordable nutrition, a daily wellness check and friendly, social interaction so they can stay self-sufficient in their own homes for as long as possible.
Longmont Meals on Wheels offers its meals to seniors and people with disabilities on a sliding scale from $1.00 to $4.50. We ask clients what their monthly income is and match them to a fee level. A client who has a monthly income of $699 or less would pay $1 on our scale and a client whose monthly income is $2,500 would pay $4.50 on our scale. In 2016, 42% of
our home-delivered meals, or 37,455 meals, were provided at no cost because our clients couldn’t afford to pay anything. A staggering 79% of our homebound clients lived below the national poverty line of $11,880 last year.
Many homebound seniors and people with disabilities earn considerably less than $699 per month. Many have higher incomes, but have expenses that are too great, like medical or housing expenses, that make it impossible to afford to pay anything for their daily nutritional 
needs. In addition to financial limitations, our clients need assistance preparing their meals. Many can no longer stand long enough to prepare food. Many no longer drive. Many have vision or cognition limitations that make it unsafe to prepare their own food. Many are on medications that decrease their sensation of hunger and therefore, struggle to eat unless a meal is already in front of them. Longmont’s seniors need proper nutrition to maintain their physical health and a daily visit to relieve their isolation. Further, research shows us that seniors are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of inadequate nutrition, from increased risk of heart attack, 
congestive heart failure, and asthma to greater limitations in activities of daily living.
Please donate to this campaign to support the seniors in Longmont who cannot afford to pay anything for their meals. $5.44 purchases one meal with additional support services, like a daily check-in. $120 covers hot, nutritious lunches for a senior in need for a month. $225 purchases the hot, lunchtime meals of a senior for a month, plus additional frozen meals for evenings and weekends for those seniors in our community who cannot afford or prepare much more than cereal for themselves.
About the Live & Give Program:
Help shape Longmont’s future in a single day.
On September 26th, Live & Give Longmont brings our community together for 24 hours of generosity. With everyone in the community giving whatever they can, we hope to raise start up funds for a few projects in our community. It’s about working together to accentuate the place we love—so it will continue to thrive today and for generations to come.
