Meals on Wheels of Albuquerque Provides More Than Just Meals to Albuquerque Seniors
You could say that Shauna Frost “cruised” into her job as Executive Director of Meals on Wheels of Albuquerque.
“I was previously employed at Chalmers Ford, in their marketing department,” says Shauna. The dealership is very philanthropically minded, she notes, and to support their charitable efforts, she began delivering meals to Meals on Wheels clients on the first Friday of every month – a commitment she kept for seven years. “I just fell in love with doing it,” says Shauna – so much that she then volunteered her skills to the organization and eventually joined their Board of Directors. A little over six years ago, she was approached to take on the Executive Director position.
“Not only does Meals on Wheels provide meals, friendship, and compassion, but we also check on the well-being of those we serve,” explains Shauna. “This has become markedly more complicated with COVID-19.” During the early days of the pandemic, in less than a week their entire operation switched from delivering hot meals into the hands of their clients to delivering frozen entrees with contactless delivery.
“We immediately revamped how we prepare meals and utilize our volunteers, many of whom are high-risk to contract COVID,” says Shauna. Tasks they typically performed inside were moved outside. Their priority is on keeping everyone safe. They supply volunteers with gloves, hand sanitizer, and masks. Perhaps most importantly, they devised a plan to keep up communication with homebound clients. Being able to physically meet with clients had always been a hallmark of each visit. COVID-19 has made that near impossible. Shauna and her team quickly devised a phone tree system to visit with each client. She notes this step was crucial to maintaining operations.
Shauna acknowledges that all of this was accomplished by her trusted staff of 18 professionals and scores of amazing volunteers. “I am beyond grateful to everyone who has helped. We also appreciate the opportunity to partner with Sunward. In addition to the generous donation, we appreciate the chance to get our message in front of members and help build Sunward’s social media community.”
HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP
Follow Sunward on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram to help Meals on Wheels of Albuquerque and Meals on Wheels of Alameda County (California) get a $5,000 donation from the Credit Union. Additionally, Meals on Wheels is always grateful for monetary donations and volunteers. Visit mow-nm.org and feedingseniors.org for more information.
Meals on Wheels provides nutritious meals and crucial social contact each day to people who need help. Founded in 1972 by a group of women from Presbyterian Churches around Albuquerque, the organization serves approximately 1,300 individual clients with the help of more than 400 volunteers.
Today they deliver more than 140,000 meals annually. Meals on Wheels is the only home-delivered meal program in the Albuquerque area preparing special diets for a variety of needs, including diabetes, renal failure, heart issues, and chewing and swallowing problems.
Meals are priced on a sliding scale based on each person’s gross monthly income and typically range from $5.95-$9.95. Anyone below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines receives meals at no cost.
