Meals on Wheels Doubles Up Meals, Enacts Safety Measures

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CORRECTION: This story has been corrected from in its initial version. The founders of Shiftsmart founded by Get Shift Done program. Workers placed by Get Shift Done are being paid by the Get Shift Done fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County is another local nonprofit that’s seen demand for its services surge, with coronavirus’ spread and resulting shelter-in-place orders.

The agency has seen its normal average monthly intake of 300 new clients double, Jordan Lyle, a spokeswoman, said. And because many Meals on Wheels clients depend on family members to supplement the one daily meal Meals on Wheels provides, the agency is now providing two meals in its daily drop-offs.

That’s meant added work for the contract kitchen staff that prepares meals at the Meals on Wheels headquarters in Haltom City. Through the Get Shift Done program, a nonprofit launched by the founders of the Shiftsmart staffing agency to help benefit restaurant workers laid off by coronavirus-related shutdowns, 12 staff members have been on hand at Meals on Wheels this week and are scheduled to come in next week, Lyle said. The workers are being paid by the Get Shift Done fund at the Communities Foundation of Texas.

“They’ve been a tremendous support to us,” she said.

Typically, about 4,200 people per year receive delivery of free meals from Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County. The doubling of provided meals costs an extra $25,000 per week, and the agency is asking donors for help in covering that, Lyle said. “We have incredible support from the community,” she said.

The agency has shifted training for its volunteer drivers, which number about 5,000, online. The agency on Thursday also announced several other temporary measures meant to establish safe social distance between its drivers and clients.

Those include asking drivers not to enter the client’s home. Instead, Meals on Wheels is asking clients to place a small chair or TV tray just inside their doors, and the drivers can reach in and place the meals on the chair.

“Some clients are accustomed to yelling out ‘come in’ when they hear you knock on their door,” the agency says in a memo to its volunteers. “For now, clients are being told they must answer the door, or they will not be served a meal for that day.” If drivers know of a client who can’t physically come to the door, they’re asked to call a telephone number and leave that information with the agency. ‘’We will follow up with the client.”

“This may seem like an extreme measure to those of you who are accustomed to entering a client’s home, opening their milk carton, and so forth,” the letter reads. “Please understand that for now it is just too great a risk.  We must all do our part in adhering to recommended social distancing guidelines. Clients are being notified of this procedural change tomorrow, March 27th. Volunteers will be distributing a flyer to each client along with their meal.”