Main Line Meals on Wheels

Why Main Line Meals on Wheels?

Not too long ago, the volunteers were unable to
find a house on their route and came back with a meal.  Obviously the patron was upset that her meal was not
delivered.  Another volunteer agreed to try to find the
patron’s home and deliver her meal.  They shared, "as we got closer, we called the patron and she guided us to her house, which was
certainly tricky to find.  It was very
cold but the patron was standing on her porch waiting for us. When we got there
she said “thank god you found me. If you didn’t deliver my meal I would not
have eaten today“. She was almost in tears."

Since 1972, Main Line Meals on Wheels has been delivering nutritious meals to homebound individuals.  This critical community service has enabled these individuals to maintain their independent living status, rather than relying on costly assisted living programs or hospital stays.  Meal deliveries also provide a much needed mental and physical health benefit because they include both social interaction for isolated individuals as well as safety check on their physical well-being.

Our mission is to deliver nutritious meals to the aged, convalescents, homebound and handicapped persons who are unable to shop or cook for themselves, regardless of race, color, creed or ability to pay.  

  Our program enables our 260 homebound
clients to age at home, longer, by ensuring they receive daily nutritious meals
(70,000 annually) and socialization with our volunteer organization.  We engage 24 volunteers (from a pool of 175)
on a daily basis (most of whom are retired seniors themselves) to pack and deliver
meals to homebound individuals.  In a
given year, we have only 3000 paid hours and a whopping 12,000 volunteers hours
that make our organization accomplish our mission.  That's 12,000 hours of volunteers from the community
interacting with, socializing with and performing safety checks on homebound
individuals in our community, and who drive almost 50,000 miles per year!   

Patron Subsidy Program

KW called the office to cancel deliveries and said she would pay what she could towards the balance due.  When the office coordinator inquired as to the cancellation reason, KW said that she only has her Social Security income and is behind on paying her property taxes.  Her income was fixed, but her expenses kept rising.  She was so scared that they would take her house but didn’t want to have her MoW balance increase any further as she worked towards paying her taxes.  She did not have any alternative food plans to compensate for cancelling MoW

With the cost of groceries rising at an alarming rate, many seniors who live on a fixed income find that their dollar doesn't stretch very far these days. Main Line Meals on Wheels does not want to turn anyone away so our Patron Subsidy Program is critical for seniors. We subsidize ALL patrons who are unable to pay the full amount for meals, even if it means we have to reach into our endowment. Main Line Meals on Wheels does not receive any federal funding and is completely privately funded through patrons paying for meals, and through donations and grants. This is why your donation is so important!

We project our subsidies to grow to at least $160,000 in 2025

Over 50% of our patrons are now being subsidized.  In 2024, nearly $150,000 was spent on subsidies, doubling what we spent in 2020. So far in 2025, we have received numerous subsidy requests, some from long time patrons who can no longer make ends meet due in this economy. To date, we have provided subsidies to ALL those patrons requesting / requiring / qualifying for subsidy.  Prior to providing subsidies, one of our board members performs a high-level review of their financials, using federal poverty levels as guidelines, to ensure need.

A typical subsidized patron lives in subsidized housing, has Social Security as their only source of income and has one or more significant medical issues (cancer, blindness, amputee, dialysis, disabilities due to stroke or heart attack etc.)

There is NO waiting list for our Meals on Wheels program, and we always deliver freshly made (not frozen) meals.  Approximately $2000 is required to subsidize one senior for a year.

We are more than food delivery