Sawoska, left, and Neuhaus, ready to deliver
CORNWALL – Orange County officials volunteered to deliver meals to Meals on Wheels recipients across the county, Friday, as part of the 2016 Big Wheels Deliver Meals Program. Officials from the county executive’s office, DA’s office, Office for the Aging and other departments, traveled with regular Meals on Wheels volunteers, making deliveries to individuals who, for one reason or another, cannot leave their homes to provide food for themselves.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus had a good time handing out the meals with veteran Meals on Wheels volunteer, Hank Sawoska, showing him the ropes along the Cornwall route they took.
Neuhaus said it is especially important for him as the executive to see firsthand how the program works. He also said that Orange County Office for the Aging Director AnnMarie Maglione had asked him to come out sometime and that he was glad to have done so.
“She [Maglione] regularly asked me to go with her and be integrated into what they do and for the guy that runs a budget, myself, the county executive, it is really important that I know that the taxpayers’ dollars are used in the right direction and as she said, what this program does is a multitude of things. Number one, it helps people, the elderly, be able to live independently; otherwise, they may have to be put into some type of home. So, really, the goal is to be able to allow people to age at home as best as possible,” said Neuhaus.
The county exec’s volunteer guide, Sawoska, also pointed out that a major benefit of the program is providing individuals who can’t leave their homes someone to interact with regularly.
“It’s a wonderful program,” said Sawoska. “I think that you talk to people and sometimes they have a meal left over and a person would take that meal and it’s good to get to know the people too and some of the people want to really talk and it’s probably the only person that they see. So, it’s sort of a blessing for me, in other words, to interact with them.”
Sawoska added that, sometimes, an individual will get hurt or have to be put into a home and it is something he is seeing happen frequently.
This is one of the reasons why Director Maglione said the program is becoming increasingly more important because the elderly population is rising rapidly and often times, there is no choice but to have them put in a home if their needs cannot be met, but she believes the programs are helping to prevent that.
“Were just going to keep growing, specifically 85 and older,” said Maglione. “That’s normally the number when our services start going down, for a variety of reasons. Now, folks are living longer, they’re living healthier. I like to think it’s part of our program that we’re helping with them do that and they’re having a better quality of life and our programs help them do that.”
Currently, Orange County’s Office for the Aging has some 700 volunteers and 50 staff who provide services and about 800 meals.
