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Richard Huffman calls it a “well-oiled machine,” and it had better be.

With nearly 300 seniors and homebound people counting on Meals on Wheels every day, any breakdown along the way will mean that people go without food.

And the service, which delivers warm meals to the doors of 280 Missoula County residents during the week, is increasingly in demand as the population ages, said St. Patrick Hospital's director of food and nutrition.

“We're experiencing a tidal wave of seniors,” said Huffman on Friday morning at the Providence Center, as a crew of volunteers loaded up their “hot boxes” and began driving the 350 miles Meals on Wheels travels every day. “The aging population is increasing, and in Missoula at an even faster rate than the rest of the state.”

For 20 years, St. Patrick Hospital has been contracted to cook the made-to-order meals for Missoula Aging Services, the administrator of the Meals on Wheels program.

These are no leftovers. Every day, St. Pat's cooks up a smorgasbord of food, catered specifically to the diets of each person. Those meals are loaded into “hot boxes,” heated storage containers that are powered by plugging them into the cigarette lighter in each volunteer's car.

Many seniors and indigent people require carefully tailored diets, and Meals on Wheels delivers them.

“This is a five-star meals program,” said Sheri Mueller, director of Meals on Wheels. “And it's because of St. Pat's that we're able to do that.”

How tailored are the meals?

“Well, if they don't want peas,” said Mueller, “we don't send them peas.”

“One of my favorite stories is the woman who didn't want flour,” Mueller said. “When we delivered her meal, she said, ‘Where's my chocolate cake?' And we said, ‘But you said you didn't want flour.' She replied, ‘Yeah, but I want chocolate flour!' ”

It all starts at 5 a.m. every day. St. Patrick Hospital cooks begin organizing the cold goods in paper bags, and fire up the cooking equipment. By 9 a.m., things are really cooking. And by 10:30, volunteer drivers are off on their 17 separate routes across the county.

Last year, 68,000 meals went out to Missoula County residents. This year, Meals on Wheels is projecting 73,000.

For most of the seniors Meals on Wheels serves, the service is one of the things that allows them to live independently. Without it, said Huffman, many would have to abandon their homes and move to assisted living.

“It literally keeps them out of the nursing homes,” he said. “It's their lifeline.”

 

Delivering dinner

For more information about Meals on Wheels, visit http://www.missoulaagingservices.org or call 728-7682.

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