The Crest

Walk for Meals On Wheels Returns

By Nina Culver Current contributor

Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels is hoping the community will turn out for the March for Meals mall walk on March 3, one of the group’s biggest fundraisers.

Those who participate in the walk through the Spokane Valley Mall between 8 and 10 a.m. that Friday can earn trophies in categories like most laps, biggest group, most enthusiastic and best costume. There will also be door prizes, swag bags and challenges during the event.

Each lap through the mall is a bit less than half a mile. GWSMOW Executive Director Jeff Edwards said he’s grateful that the mall is allowing the group to use the space for free. “The Spokane Valley Mall has rolled out the red carpet for us,” he said.

The March for Meals has always been the group’s largest fundraiser in terms of the number of participants, regularly attracting between 150 and 200 people. “Prior to COVID, it was a pretty big event,” Edwards said. “There was a lot of participation.”

Participation has been down during the last couple of years, but Edwards said he hopes that the big crowd will be back this time. “This year we’re expecting a return to that bigger format,” he said.

Money raised during the event will go directly to providing meals to seniors in Spokane County, Edwards said. The organization receives about a third of its funding from the federal government through a partnership with Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington and the rest comes from local governments, grants and private donations.

“Really, there’s no one funding source that gets us to the finish line,” Edwards said. “It takes all of them.”

The organization provides homedelivered meals to seniors living all over Spokane County and also has a dozen group dining sites known as Silver Cafes. They served and/ or delivered 220,000 meals last year, Edwards said. “Rising food costs hit us pretty hard last year,” he said.

Despite those food costs that went $100,000 over budget, the difference was able to be made up with donations, Edwards said. The organization did not have to change its suggested donation of $5 per meal and plans to keep it the same this year. However, seniors are not turned away because of an inability to pay, Edwards said.

Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels saw a 40 percent increase in seniors seeking meals in March and April 2020 as the pandemic hit, Edwards said. It has dipped slightly downward since then, but not significantly. “We’ve seen it go up and stay up,” he said. “A lot of them stayed on it.”

Organizations that assist seniors knew there was a new wave of seniors on the way, but COVID accelerated that. “Even prior to COVID, we knew there was a demographic boom of seniors coming,” he said.

Edwards said his goal has always been to maintain services without having to resort to a waiting list. His organization has been able to avoid having a waiting list, but that hasn’t been the case in other locations. A few years ago Edwards tried to sign his parents up for Meals on Wheels where they lived in Memphis, Tennessee, only to find that there was a year-long waiting list.

“Hunger is a daily event,” he said. “You can’t wait six months. You can’t wait a year.”

Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels is one of the community organizations to receive emergency funding during the pandemic, including money from the American Recovery Act. Edwards said he’s already planning for how to continue serving higher numbers of seniors once that money is gone. As always, his goal will be to maintain that service without a waiting list. “That money is going away in 2024,” he said.

Those higher numbers make fundraisers like March for Meals all that more important. Registration is $20 per person, which includes a swag bag and a chance at prizes. Groups of five or more are $10 per person, as is youth registration. People can register the morning of the event or in advance online at https://gscmealsonwheels.org/ event/march-for-meals.

Those who can’t make it to the in-person event also have the opportunity to be virtual walkers. People can sign up on the website listed above to walk anytime during the month of March and either walk once or multiple times. Each mile walked means more chances to win prizes.

Virtual walkers can also register their dog to walk with them and receive a dog-themed swag bag for their furry pooch.

Edwards said that each meal the organization serves costs about $5 to produce, so a registration fee will pay for four meals. “Those local dollars stay local,” he said. “It takes community events like this. It’s just a way for the local community to come together or support the mission and pay for meals.”