ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Thirty employees. More than 900 volunteers. Eighty-eight routes. Eight delivery hubs.
Five days a week, an enormous logistical challenge spills onto the streets of the Lehigh Valley in an effort to get healthy, medically tailored meals to thousands of people.
But beyond simply providing meals, Erik McGaughey said that dedicated army is making a difference in ways that go far beyond perceptions.
- Erik McGaughey is the new chief executive officer of Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley
- He's working to help change perceptions about the organization, which has eight delivery hubs, 88 routes and more than 900 volunteers
- Meals on Wheels also offers services to clients they're looking to grow, including Chef Packs
McGaughey is the new chief executive officer of Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley, which last year moved its headquarters to North Sherman Street on Allentown’s East Side.
The new space not only allows quicker transport of food to drop-off sites, but provides additional space for meal preparation and nonperishable food storage.
Most importantly, the new location also includes The Fleming Cafe — a space for community meetings and monthly programs such as Lunch & Learn, which welcomes residents of any age to discuss topics such as housing, food insecurity, senior services, fraud protection, wellness and more.
“It's about helping people," McGaughey said Thursday in an hour-long interview. "It's about being connected and making a difference in people's lives.”
But in steering the ship of one of the largest social movements in the region, McGaughey and his staff also work to educate the public on what Meals on Wheels offers (you probably didn’t think of pet food) and the clients it aims to serve (which go far beyond seniors who live at home who are frail, disabled or socially isolated).
Serving a community
McGaughey spent 14 years at the American Cancer Society, most recently as the regional development director, but enjoyed a seamless transition to Meals on Wheels when he joined the organization late last fall.
He said he is awed every day at the staff and volunteers he refers to as “superheroes.”
“We're so much more than just a meal," he said. "We are so much more than just the food we provide. We are feeding souls, we are feeding their human connection, we're feeding that interaction that people crave and that moment to be connected to another person and to be heard and to be seen.
“We feed all of that on a regular basis and the people who are our clients — the people we serve and the communities that we serve — they need us,” McGaughey said.
Answering a call to get someone enrolled starts with finding out where they are and what their need is.
"If they need this little thing to make them one step safer, why would we not do that? Why would we not become that connection to do things that would help them?”Erik McGaughey, the new CEO of Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley
“The nice part is that we’re able to tailor by a number of categories what they need,” McGaughey said. “And then we say, ‘Alright, well, how long do you need these services? What is your expectation?’ And most people say, ‘I have no idea.’
"Then we start to run through the process of asking questions about their physical capacity, their limitations. Do they consider themselves disabled? Are they mobile?
“We have clients and people in the community we serve who have been with us for 25 years.”
Those who make contact and choose to move forward with the Meals on Wheels service have a case manager visit their home to further assess need.
“One is a former nurse, and we have others who are focused on different counties and different age groups," he said. "They meet [the client] and ask, ‘What do you need? Do you have an oven? Do you have a refrigerator? Do you have a freezer, and how large is the freezer? What’s the capacity?’
"We do our very best to make sure we know all we can possibly know about them before we begin our services, and a lot of what we do is based on two factors — really fighting social isolation, really fighting hunger. But beyond that, we do everything we can do to keep them independent.”
Much more than just meals
Last year, Meals on Wheels facilitated the installation of more than 100 smoke detectors in homes of clients in need.
“Then you have a bunch of people who ask, 'What does that have to do with Meals on Wheels?' ” McGaughey said. “It has everything to do with Meals on Wheels because they're a person who we’re keeping in their own home to maintain their independence.
“And if they need this little thing to make them one step safer, why would we not do that? Why would we not become that connection to do things that would help them?”
Meals on Wheels also works with other service organizations, groups and nonprofits for which clients might have a need, such as cancer support groups.
“Our volunteers sit in a place where 99 percent of the world wishes they were,” McGaughey said. “We have face time with people every day.
"And we can go, ‘Oh my gosh, I need help with this' … and when we’re connected to these other organizations, we don’t need to do it all and we can share their information. That speaks volumes to helping our folks just be where they are.”
Meals on Wheels also has a pet assistance program that provides meals for what McGaughey estimated were 300 cats and 300 dogs, supporting a vital connection between clients and their pets.
Clients who have difficulty getting to the grocery store also can get help from the Meals on Wheels shopping program, which McGaughey described as flexible, secure and affordable. Volunteers shop at the convenience of the client, are background-checked and the cost is just $3 per trip for Home Delivered Meal clients through Giant Direct.
‘We change people's lives'
Now five months into his new role, McGaughey said he works every day to “dispel myths about what happens here and who we are.”
The meals that get delivered to clients all are customized and designed by a licensed nutritionist to meet a third of the recommended daily allowance. The program also accommodates all special diets such as diabetic, renal, pureed and some food allergies.
Chefs also incorporate seasonal produce when possible.
“What if I told you we have a 10-week menu that doesn’t repeat?" he said. "Most restaurants would struggle to do that, but we do that and we’re making 1,100 or 1,200 meals.
"Plus, our nutritionist makes sure it's portion-controlled, heart healthy, vitamin rich … and then organizes that with 900 [volunteers] to make sure those 88 routes are happening.”
Meals on Wheels also offers Chef Packs of up to 16 frozen entrees and two soups. They’re open to anyone looking to eat healthier without cooking more, or those recovering from surgery or illness.
“We make smaller batches that we do about 50 meals at a time of each," he said. "But they include things like margarita salmon, and we have a stuffed pepper meal that has come out. And these are … we have people who only order Chef Packs from us who are not our [standard meal delivery] clients.
"These are people who are not homebound, necessarily, or who all have different reasons for buying them. We have some people who work from home, we have other people who have different needs.
"But we've started to see more and more folks who are going through rehab, whether we're recovering from a hip surgery or knee surgery, or their mobility has changed. We have people who buy them for five or six weeks, others who are doing it for longer periods of time and we have clients who have been buying them for a while. And none of it costs more than $9 a meal."
No matter what, McGaughey said Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley is dedicated to making sure those they serve have access to all of the help they need.
“I think what I’m most impressed by is that we adapt to what people’s needs are,” he said. “We change people's lives with what we do.”
