● Meals on wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg ●
Friendship Trays was started when, where, and why?
The
first meals were delivered in October 1976 in the Elizabeth
neighborhood when neighbors realized that people were being
discharged from area hospitals to their homes and were unable to
prepare their own meals. An effort begun by five founding
congregations that provided work space and volunteers led to the
creation of today's nonprofit Friendship Trays.
Whom do you serve?
Recipients range in age from their 20s to their 100s. Most live in the city of Charlotte, but we are delivering to people throughout Mecklenburg County. The key criteria is that, for whatever reason, they are unable to prepare their own meal. About two-thirds of recipients are elderly women, and most of them have a chronic illness like diabetes.
The vast majority of recipients live on less than $15,000 a year, and need assistance paying for their meals. Additional statistical information is here.
How many do you serve?
There are usually more than 800 people receive service. On any given day, some will be hospitalized, some will be away for the day at kidney dialysis, some will be with family. For those and other reasons, the number of meals served varies from day to day, but the 42-day average is close to 800 meals per day. For current numbers, see here. (The charts on this page do not yet work in version 8 or earlier of Internet Explorer.) See this chart for the year 2009 in much greater detail.
How many volunteers does it take?
Do you need more?
Volunteers help package food in the kitchen. They deliver meals on our more than 90 routes. And they help out in the office.
Friendship Trays therefore needs more than 100 volunteers daily! Most volunteers participate monthly. Some are involved weekly. To cover all the assignments takes a volunteer pool of more than 1,000 individuals.
With the establishment of routes in the far northern and southern ends of Mecklenburg, there are volunteer opportunities throughout Mecklenburg. About a third of the routes are picked up at satellite locations in suburban areas close to the neighborhoods served by those routes.
How does the distribution system
work?
Several hundred meals are delivered by contract to adult and child day care centers and similar locations. Friendship Trays staff deliver to some day cares, while other facilities pick up the meals at the South End kitchen. The remainder of the meals are delivered weekdays to individuals' homes.
Home deliveries are made to the extent possible by volunteers. Routes that cannot be covered by volunteers are delivered by paid drivers. The small number of recipients who need meals seven days a week are receiving three chilled meals on Fridays, two to be refrigerated for weekend use.
Daily
meal deliveries emanate from Friendship Trays' South End kitchen
plus a small web of meal distribution sites across the county. Routes serving central Charlotte begin at South
End, but bags of meals for multiple suburban routes are
transported to the distribution sites, allowing each volunteer
to pick up meals in closer proximity to the route. Click here
for a map of the routes.
Are you meeting the needs of the
community? If not, what would that take?
For decades, Friendship Trays had waiting lists in the hundreds. Today, the waiting list is generally in the dozens, or less. Some applicants live along routes already at capacity. A few live in outlying areas far from an existing route.
But that is only part of the answer. We respond quickly to requests for service, but we do not have the capacity to go door to door to see where this service might be a boon to a resident's health. And if we unearthed hundreds of recipients, we would not have the financial resources to pay meal costs not covered by recipients' ability to pay. So we're caught. Perhaps the best answer is we doubt we are meeting the need, and are unprepared financially to do so.
The primary long-term challenge is the aging of the Baby Boom generation. A bubble of prospective recipients is coming, over the next 20 years, as the Boomers age. Friendship Trays has kitchen capacity to meet anticipated growth. But it does not have the volunteer resources or, alternatively, the revenue to pay for drivers, to meet anticipated growth.
How does a person request and
qualify for meals?
Some people call Friendship Trays directly. Most are referred to Friendship Trays by doctors, social workers and area agencies. Some family members inquire on behalf of their loved ones. Contact is made by phone (704-333-9229), by fax (704-333-5947) and by a recipient prospect form on this website.
In emergencies, some recipients receive food the same day that Friendship Trays learns of their need. Most recipients receive deliveries within about a week, and are interviewed at their homes to assess their dietary needs and their capacity to pay. Virtually all recipients pay something for their meals.
Unlike many community meals-on-wheels programs, Friendship Trays has no age restrictions, so there have even been pre-teens on the program whose illnesses imposed dietary restrictions that could not be met by the family. The key test is whether the individual needs help preparing the daily meal.
How much does it cost to provide
this service?
Calendar year 2010 expenses were $1.27 million. The 2011 budget was $1.32 million. Additional budgetary information on Friendship Trays is available at Charity Navigator online.
Where does the money come?
The difference between recipient payments and annual operating expenses is covered by support from individuals, foundation and other grants, area religious congregations, corporations and in-kind donations. Friendship Trays is not a United Way agency. Its endowment is not yet large enough to provide supplemental income to cover operating costs.
What is your relationship with the
Community Culinary School/Encore? Can this relationship be
enhanced? If so, how?
Four independent nonprofits – Friendship Trays, the Community Culinary School of Charlotte, the gleaners of the Society of St. Andrew and emergency food pantries operator Loaves and Fishes – collaborate as the Nutrition Coalition. Friendship Trays and the Culinary School are under the same roof on Distribution Street in South End Charlotte.
Friendship Trays and the Culinary School share donated building space, and split the costs of utilities and supplies. The school’s students pay for their training, and learn at the same time, by assisting daily in the Friendship Trays kitchen. The gleaners often provide fresh produce that makes its way into Friendship Trays meals. The school's for-profit Encore Catering organization uses the Friendship Trays kitchen, and in turn provides employment and training opportunities to culinary school students.
These collaborations have developed over more than a decade, and likely will continue to evolve. The nonprofits, now separate entities, will explore closer ties, both at the organizational level and in terms of sharing support services.
Are there other relationships in
the community?
Friendship Trays collaborates with area agencies to identify prospective recipients. It relies on area religious congregations and, increasingly, area businesses to send teams of volunteers to Friendship Trays to assist in the kitchen or drive routes. It partners with area nonprofits to provide emergency meals during individual emergencies and some disaster scenarios. It has a relationship with the Mecklenburg County Health Department to meet the nutrition needs of the department's HIV/AIDS clients.
What are your main
concerns/challenges/needs?
We have the following primary needs:
– Additional volunteers. We need more volunteers to greet recipients and deliver meals. Routes are throughout Mecklenburg County.
– Donations. We need additional unrestricted annual donations to cover the reality that most of our recipients live below the poverty line and, in the last years of their lives, are unable to pay the full cost of their meals.
– Endowment. We need a $25 million endowment to supplement annual donations.
Friendship Trays, 2401-A
Distribution St. Charlotte, NC 28203 voice 704-333-9229 fax 704-333-5947
Meals-on-wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Delivering, in a caring and friendly
manner, balanced meals to individuals in this community
who are unable, because of age or infirmity, to obtain and prepare their own
meal
Friendship Trays is a
501(c)(3) organization. Employer ID #56-1201496. Financial information about
this organization and a copy of its license
are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-807-2000. The
license is not an endorsement by the State.