FREMONT, Neb. (AP) - Elderly and disabled people in Fremont who had relied on a meal delivery charity will now have to find another way to feed themselves or do without.
The city’s Meals on Wheels program has abruptly ended, affecting about 35 people, including 89-year-old Joyce Ball, the Fremont Tribune reported (https://bit.ly/2tpEpa4 ) Friday.
Ball had benefited from the service for about two years. She waited last week for a lunch that never came.
“I thought that was strange,” Ball said. “I thought maybe I had just been missed.”
Premier Estates of Fremont, a nursing home formerly known as Arbor Manor, told the charity it would stop making the meals in August, after more than 40 years of providing the service. The nursing home only prepared the meals; it was reimbursed for the cost of the food by clients and donations from other charities and churches.
“They felt like doing the meals was just too much for them,” Meals on Wheels Director Deanna Freitag said.
The corporate office of Premier Estates did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
Freitag said the program stopped delivering the meals last week - well before the August cutoff - after a worker who packaged the meals was hospitalized.
“When (the worker) got sick, we had no one to go put those meals out and get them ready,” Freitag said. “Therefore, I could see nothing else to do but to quit.”
Freitag informed charity clients on Tuesday that the program was discontinued indefinitely. She’s still hoping to find a group that will cook the meals, allowing the service to start back up.
The Fremont program is not affiliated with Meals on Wheels of America, which receives federal funding.
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Information from: Fremont Tribune, https://www.fremontneb.com
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