Like many WesleyLife Meals on Wheels clients, Rita P. of Des Moines hasn’t found life especially kind.
At 65, Rita has survived domestic abuse, employment instability, and isolation. Even at her most financially stable, she lived well below the federal poverty level and, while waiting for her next Supplemental Security Income check to arrive, often spent a day or more without food.
When a social worker told her Meals on Wheels would be available to her, she was pleasantly surprised — but it took a few days of consistent delivery for her to feel the service wasn’t “too good to be true.”
“When I first started getting (Meals on Wheels), I worried that it would be taken away from me — that it would just stop,” Rita says. “But my driver kept coming; in fact, she would come at almost the same minute every day. I finally realized I could count on having food to eat, even if there was nothing in my refrigerator.”
Three days without food
Rita had been without food for three days when her first Meals on Wheels meal arrived. She is proud and doesn’t like to ask for help; she considers herself a survivor and is used to relying on her own resilience.
But this time, she wasn’t sure where to turn, and in retrospect, she feels Meals on Wheels may have saved her life.
“Going without eating any longer would have hurt my health, and I’m not in the best of health anyway” Rita says. “But when you’re on disability, you only have so much money to live on. And with the price of food and how hard it is to make the food, I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just have to be hungry.’”
In addition to daily meal delivery — she says her favorite is Salisbury steak, with “anything chocolate” for dessert — Rita says she greatly enjoys talking with her delivery driver, Candy.
More than a meal
“She checks to make sure I’m feeling OK and that I don’t need any medical attention,” Rita says. “She also listens to me and my worries. She is so nice to me, and she keeps me from being lonely.
“Candy knows that if she knocks on the door and I don’t answer, that means I’m not healthy, or I’m hurt. That could save a person’s life, and it helps take away some of my stress.”
Rita says she is grateful for the donors who support Meals on Wheels, and wishes she could thank them personally.
“Somebody like me — it would be easy for people to forget me,” she says. “It’s amazing that they care enough about me and so many other people, and that they make it so every day, I can eat.
“Meals on Wheels takes such good care of me; I couldn’t ask for anything else. So I am grateful for everyone who gives money to this program. Every day now, I know I am going to have food.”
Here more from Rita; watch her video here. Then, please consider contributing to assist Rita and so many others who benefit from the services we provide with the support of our generous donors.
