Wood County Committee on Aging (WCCOA) has been awarded $15,000 through a Walmart Foundation grant to the Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA). The money will provide WCCOA with a much-needed home delivered meal truck, which is critical to continue serving seniors, according to Angie Bradford. director of food service.

The financial support is desperately needed as many home-deliverer meal programs across the country are struggling to survive during this economic downturn. “The Walmart Foundation Impact Grant is intended to help WCCOA continue to meet the long-term equipment needs of providing meals to our seniors in Wood County,” Bradford said.

The Walmart Foundation is awarding more than $2 million nationwide to help home-delivered meal programs have the equipment they need to maintain their operations into the future.

“Seniors have been hit especially hard in this economy and we feel a responsibility to help,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Walmart Foundation. “We’re proud to support Meals on Wheels programs across the U.S. who work on the front lines of ending senior hunger.”

“Thanks to the Walmart Foundation Impact Grant, we will be able to expand home-delivered meal services throughout Wood County,” Bradford said. “This grant will help us provide the next meal to many of our clients in need and will truly make a difference for the seniors of Wood County.”

“The Walmart Foundation has once again stepped up to the plate as a powerful partner in the fight to end senior hunger,” said Enid Borden, president and CEO of MOWAA. “They are our largest corporate partner to date and their support will make a tremendous impact in helping our programs sustain meal services well into the future. We can’t thank the Walmart Foundation enough for joining us in our national movement to end senior hunger in America by 2020.”

Late last year MOWAA released a groundbreaking study revealing six million seniors in America face the risk of hunger. The report, entitled, “Senior Hunger in the United States: Differences across States and Rural and Urban Areas” was sponsored by MOWAA and shows that the number of seniors facing the hunger risk jumped an astonishing 20 percent in just one year.

Wood County Committee on Aging serves about 750 meals daily (Monday through Friday) to the 60 year and older population throughout Wood County. For more information about the WCCOA’s home-delivered and congregate meal programs, call 1-800-367-4935.

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