Senior center will take over Des Plaines' Meals on Wheels

The Des Plaines city council this week agreed to hand over the city's Meals on Wheels program to the Des Plaines Senior Center, and granted the center $80,000 in funding over two years to administer it.

That is in addition to the $40,000 the senior center will get from the city this year for its other operations.

The Meals on Wheels program helps provide warm midday meals five days a week to roughly 34 homebound senior citizens and other people in need. Program participants pay $3 per meal provided through Oakton Pavilion Inc. Nursing Home in Des Plaines, 8th Ward Alderman Rosemary Argus said.

The official hand over of the program won't happen until March, with city and center staff working together until then to ensure a smooth transition, Senior Center CEO/Executive Director Sharon Smith said.

Smith said the center will use the current Meals on Wheels volunteers after they are enrolled into the center's volunteer program so that they are covered through its liability insurance.

The city funding is needed to cover liability insurance, background checks and training of volunteers, hiring social workers, and performing an annual audit of the meals program, she said.

The Meals On Wheels program had been operated out of the city's Health and Human Services Department for years. It cost the city roughly $112,000 in staff salaries and benefits to run the program, officials said.

With the elimination of two full-time employee positions within that department - part of citywide cutbacks to close a budget shortfall - the city could no longer had staff to coordinate the program.

Senior center leaders offered to provide the city council with monthly tracking data and reports on demand in response to 5th Ward Alderman James Brookman's request for a quarterly review of the program.

Though the senior center has a full-service restaurant on-site serving 14,000 congregate meals for seniors yearly. Smith said she hopes the center will be able prepare the meals itself once the program evolves, but until then it will contract with the same vendor the city uses for the meals.

Smith said officials plan to apply for a grant to fund the Meals on Wheels service after the contract with the city runs out in two years. The cost to run the program could go down to $25,000 in the third year if the center is able to secure grant funding for it, officials said.