“She would sit under his hand, and he’d scratch her head,” Osgood recalled. “When he died, we got the most lovely note from his nephew, but we have no idea how he know we were stopping. We had never spoken to him, and the gentleman couldn’t talk. We were so touched.”
While most of the twenty-odd clients are elderly, occasionally deliveries are made to people with temporary disabilities, such as a 40-year-old man who had a heart transplant, a woman with severe postpartum depression, a woman who broke her arm. “We help until they’re back on their feet,” said Osgood.
Lunch consists of meat or fish, vegetables, potatoes, pasta, and a dessert, with pudding being a favorite of many clients. “Everything is made daily,” said Langer, “Nothing comes out of the freezer.”
Maclary is able to tailor meals to the needs of most clients. “We can do vegetarian, gluten-free, lactose-free,” said Osgood. “We serve diabetics, as well as people on dialysis, where you have to measure the weight and blot out moisture. We call the dietitian at Kingston Hospital to tell us how to handle special needs. We just can’t do vegan.”
The group delivers to Woodstock and West Hurley. “If someone’s very close on the Saugerties or Glenford border, we can also accommodate them,” said Langer. “Most other towns have some services by the Office of the Aging, and the county has a program, but you have to get in through a hospital.” However, other offices don’t deliver for weekends and holidays, nor do they address special diets.
Funding for the program comes from donations and a small stipend from the town of Woodstock. Each client is charged an affordable fee. Fundraising is limited to a yearly letter written by Osgood. When she became co-president in 2006, “they were in the hole. I wrote to 100 friends and family members, and they all sent us something. That got the organization solvent again.”
Shoppers keep costs down by “shopping the sales,” said Osgood, and the group maintains relationships with stores and food pantries. If the Queen’s Galley soup kitchen in Kingston has an excess of some item, it’s shared with Meals on Wheels, and vice versa. “Once we got 14 hams,” said Osgood. “We kept two and sent the rest to Queen’s Galley.”
Adams Fairacre Farms, the Woodstock Meat Market, Sunflower Natural Foods Market, and Sunfrost are among the stores that donate food. Kids at elementary schools make little craft items to go out with packages or bake cookies for the clients. One person who had a field of daffodils donated flowers for the deliveries. In the past, people with gardens supplied vegetables in summer.
Schools also incorporate volunteer work into their curriculum. Teachers from the Woodstock Day School bring students over on Tuesdays to help cook and clean the kitchen. Clients and teachers from the Anderson Center for Autism accompany deliveries, encouraging rapport with older people.
The experience of volunteering, said Osgood, “is very social. You miss it when you don’t go.”
To donate, volunteer, or suggest a client for Meals on Wheels, call the kitchen at 679-4656.
