Since March 1st, our Meals on Wheels staff has added over 190 new clients to our Meals on Wheels program. Prior to
the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers personally delivered hot meals to seniors. Our operations have now had to
change with volunteers delivering a week's worth of meals to seniors once a week instead. While this change is not
ideal, we believe that this is necessary to keep both clients and volunteers safe, by minimizing exposure. Additionally,
everyone we serve has received 10 extra meals to keep on hand should an emergency situation arise and we are not
able to deliver meals as expected. Even though our volunteers are not seeing the seniors personally every day, we are
still connecting with them. Everyone is contacted 3 times a week, once with the weekly delivery and two times a week
with a friendly volunteer phone call. We are happy to say that we continue to bring on new seniors to the program
without a Wait List. Our program actively works on connecting seniors to their community, whether it's through our
congregate meals program or through our pet food delivery service, Senior Paws. Out of all our clients 93% say they
feel more secure in their homes due to a volunteer checking in on them, and 98% of our clients believe that their
nutrition is better with our services. When seniors have a community supporting them, they gain greater quality of life,
need fewer hospital stays and live longer. Meals on Wheels enables seniors to remain more healthy and independent in
their own homes, where they want to be, avoiding far more costly healthcare alternatives, such as unnecessary trips
to the emergency room, hospitalizations and nursing home placements. We know our program model is effective at
reducing senior hunger and isolation. Our goal is to continue to increase the number of homebound seniors we serve in
the Denton area and contiguous communities as our fast-growing population ages.
Monetary donations to support our Meals on Wheels program, we always need donations of dog and cat food for distribution to our home-bound seniors who cannot afford to feed their pets.
SPAN enables people to live as fully and independently as possible by providing nutrition, transportation and social services to older persons, persons with disabilities, veterans, and the general public. Our main program areas are Meals on Wheels (meals delivered to home-bound seniors), senior center meals and transportation for veterans, the elderly and disabled in Denton County. Our Senior Paws program provides pet food to homebound seniors who might not otherwise be able to feed their pets.
It is the policy of Span Inc. that no person shall, on the grounds of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age or disability be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination under any Span programs or activities.
Organization name
SPAN / Meals on Wheels of Denton County
Causes
Hunger, Food Access & Nutrition, Seniors, Social Services
Operating Budget
$3,000,000 - $9,999,999
Counties Served
Denton
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
1800 Malone St