Mobile Meals of Tucson Inc

We do one thing at Mobile Meals of Tucson – we deliver special diet meals to homebound adults in Tucson and southern Arizona.

WHY HELP MOBILE MEALS?

Mobile Meals fills a special niche in the community. Other agencies provide meals to the elderly, but Mobile Meals provides meals to adults of all ages with special attention given to dietary needs critical to maintaining a healthy life.

We’re reaching out to you first, asking you to join us by contributing to the most basic necessity to ensure our client’s independence: food.  The two meals a day they receive from Mobile Meals mean they could stay in their home and maintain that pride in being independent. 

 

These benefits we realized in 2013 because of your support:

 

• We delivered 100,000 meals. 80% were special diet meals
• Nearly 800 unique clients received meals allowing them to stay in their homes
• We recruited more than 400 volunteers
• Those volunteers drove more than 160,000 miles delivering meals

 

Two meals (usually one hot and one cold) are delivered by community volunteers to each client every Monday through Friday. These diet specific meals are prepared by nine local hospitals and healthcare facilities and are placed in thermal insulated trays for delivery.

Meals are picked up by volunteers using their own vehicles and delivered to each volunteer. While the delivery of food is essential, one critical benefit of the program is the daily visit by the volunteer. This daily visit is a lifeline - a “welfare or safety check” and an opportunity for some social interaction for these individuals who usually live alone.

Founded in 1970 by a group of physicians’ wives, Mobile Meals of Tucson has evolved from an all-volunteer grassroots organization serving almost 250 individuals daily; with a volunteer corps of almost 400.

Managed and operated entirely by volunteers until 1998, Mobile Meals today has one full-time Executive Director and five (5) part-time employees, as well as over 400 volunteers.

Funds raised are used for program support - to subsidize the cost of meals and to support the volunteer program which is essential to delivery. In FY 2012 volunteers delivered over 95,256 meals to 693 clients. Mobile Meals continues to grow about 10% each year which continues to impact the budget. The number of clients increased from a monthly average of 202 in 2010 to a monthly average of 225 last year.

When first interviewed for the program, clients are asked to pay for meals on a sliding scale fee basis. Over half (58%) pay $3.00 or less per meal tray (two meals). Eleven (11)
clients pay nothing for their meals. Cost to deliver the meal tray is almost $11.00.

Volunteer participation is the lynchpin of the program and is managed by the Volunteer Coordinator. Volunteer recruitment and management is ongoing and includes participation at local churches on the weekends, health fairs, homeowners meetings, and speaking to local civic and community groups.

Estimated volunteer hours donated to Mobile Meals per year is over 20,000 hours per year. Value of the volunteer hour in Arizona is estimated by Independent Sector, a national policy organization to be $19.71 per hour in 2010. (This is the latest report.) This translates to personnel savings of almost $400,000 per year. Recruitment and management of volunteers is critical to the program. Community volunteers serve as drivers, Client Interviewers, Driver Schedulers, Paperwork Liaisons and office support.

Mobile Meals clients are frail, vulnerable adults with a host of chronic illnesses that require special diets and a daily visit. The purpose of this program funding is to help these individuals continue to live independently and in their own homes thus avoiding the emotional and financial cost of a nursing home.