percent are able to pay something. Additional support
comes from individuals, churches, companies, civic
groups and grants. The charity is raising matching
funds for a $58,000 grant from Selby Foundation to
purchase much-needed kitchen equipment and two
SUVs to allow another 175 clients to be served.
“The statistics are frightening. In Sarasota County,
24,000 seniors have no idea where their next meal
is coming from,” Broughton says. “We also help a
lot of mentally or physically disabled individuals,
pre-homeless families, and people with end stage
cancer,” Broughton says. For just $1,500, a donor can
provide meals for someone for an entire year. Because
companion animals also are part of the family, Meals
on Wheels supports 100 pets with food and veterinary
care.
DECEMBER 2017 | SARASOTA SCENE 67
Meals on Wheels of Sarasota
More Than A Meal. We Save Lives.
Meals on Wheels of Sarasota has been helping
homebound people of all ages continue to live
independently for nearly half a century. Six days
a week, 450 volunteers serve and deliver freshlycooked,
heart healthy meals that provide more than
500 individuals in northern Sarasota County with
nutritional support and a daily safety check on their
welfare. “Since our founding in 1971, we continue to
be an independent, community-supported charity that
serves more than 160,000 meals per year to seniors,
children, veterans and the physically and mentally
handicapped without receiving federal funding,” says
Marjorie Broughton, Executive Director.
Meals on Wheels’ clients must be unable to provide
or prepare a meal for themselves and are asked for a
$4.50 per meal donation, toward which only about 30
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