T-R FILE PHOTO Meals on Wheels of Marshalltown wants to continue serving their clients hot meals. The organization delivers seven days a week, and even here during the COVID-19 pandemic, but needs funding in order to help clients pay for their food.

Meals on Wheels of Marshalltown needs some help.

At the Marshall County Food Access Committee meeting on March 10, Larry Pfantz, the vice president of Meals on Wheels who is in charge of transportation, said the organization is in need of funding. He stressed that they do not need food but money to help cover the costs to the clients.

Meals on Wheels delivers food seven days a week to homebound Marshalltown residents who want to maintain independent living, but residents must be referred by a physician. According to Pfantz, some of their clients have asked if Medicaid or Medicare can be used to cover the $4 per meal cost.

“Right now we don’t work with Medicaid or Medicare,” he said. “We are all volunteers, and no one has the time to deal with all of the paperwork.”

Pfantz explained the process of getting one of the federal healthcare programs involved. A client would have to submit the proper paperwork to get one of the programs to cover the cost of their meals. Then, Meals on Wheels has the burden to submit corresponding paperwork.

“We have done that in the past, and it’s a paperwork nightmare,” he said.

That means the client has to pay. A Food Access committee member asked what Meals on Wheels would use the funding for, since they do not have to purchase food. Pfantz said the money would be used to support getting the food to the clients.

“We cover the rest of that cost,” he said. “We use funds for that.”

Occasionally, clients have asked if they would be able to get seven days worth of meals, rather than three if they pay $12. Pfantz said that is possible, and Meals on Wheels would cover the remaining $16.

There has been a recent decrease in the number of clients. Within the past year, he said the number of clients has fallen from more than 30 to between 20 to 25. Whether or not that is a direct response to rising costs, Pfantz was not sure.

“We get a lot of inquiries,” he said. “When they hear the cost, some will decide to opt out and try to find something else.”

However, the food provided by Meals on Wheels is hot and prepared by UnityPoint Hospital. Pfantz added that the hospital does that at cost, so there is not a lot of profit being generated. But UnityPoint does need to recoup some of their cost, so the hospital charges Meals on Wheels, and thus they charge their clients.

“We do get donations from several veteran organizations to support the veterans on our client list, and we have a really good relationship with the hospital, which helps keep the cost down,” he said. “But with the cost of everything going up, we expect that to change. We do not want to have our clients stop getting their meals because they can’t afford it. Funding will help with that.”

He added that they could use some assistance in navigating the federal healthcare system and with identifying homebound people in Marshalltown who could use the services of Meals on Wheels.

“A lot of the time, they don’t hear about us,” Pfantz said. “We have information at the doctor’s offices and the senior citizens center. We do the best we can [to get word out] with our budget.”

Getting the meals to the homebound clients is the top priority, and the organization wants to know what the barriers are which might prevent someone from using the service.

“We are able to help people if money is a hindrance from you getting what you need,” he said. “We just need to know so we can help out the best we can.”

DONATE:

To donate to Meals on Wheels of Marshalltown, visit mealsonwheelsofmarshalltown.com/volunteer. According to Pfantz, the page is not limited to driving or food donations. A person only has to write in the “Your message” portion of the online form that he or she would like to donate some money. A volunteer will then get in touch with that person.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.