Meals on Wheels

Last month, following the special election, we all patted ourselves vigorously on our backs for passing the debt exclusion questions to enable the city to build the new schools and, pertinent to this post, the senior center.

We told ourselves we were taking care of our more vulnerable members, and we were.

Now we have a chance to do it again.

As Ward 3 Councilor Bob Cronin reminds us....

There have been several news articles about the plight of the Meals on Wheels program run by the People's United Methodist Church.  They are in dire straits trying to keep this program going.  They service about 100 people per day five days a week.  PUMC gets $100.00 per month from the Meals on Wheels national program, yes you read that correctly… one hundred dollars total a month.  They spend about $1600.00 per month.  I have expressed my concerns in Council Chambers and am trying to grasp why there is no funding from the City coffers. If you can spare a couple dollars please make checks payable to PUMC, write MOW Program on memo line.  Donations can be mailed to PUMC, 64 Purchase St., Newburyport, MA 01950.

The Daily News first wrote of their plight a few weeks ago. I couldn't find the link to the article, but here's  the letter that likely inspired it.

Our church has been facilitating the Meals-On-Wheels program for eight or nine years now and would like to continue doing so until the new senior center, which the voters of Newburyport recently approved funds for, is completed in 2015. However, over the past several years, the finances of our church have declined considerably. In fact, we have now reached the point where we will no longer be able to offer our church as a site for the Meals-On-Wheels program if we cannot secure some outside financial assistance. This would be a tremendous loss for the elderly citizens of the Greater Newburyport community.  

-Pastor Rusty Davis, People’s United Methodist Church, Newburyport

 What I found most compelling from the article is the fact the church, which is facing a declining membership and some uncertainty, used the money it received in the sale of historic weather vane, to fund the program. But the money is nearly gone.

What outstanding generousity.


Last month, 3,200 people in Newburyport voted to allow the city to borrow the money necessary to build a new senior center. If we each give $1, one hundred elderly or disabled people receive hot meals for the next two months.


If we each give $10, well, you do the math.


Let's do the right thing again.