Community feeding partners provide meals to seniors ahead of the holidays

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The holidays can be an isolating time for senior citizens in our community. This is why community partners are coordinating meal services to bring food directly to older adults throughout the region. Fresh meals were delivered right to their doors in Seminole County Friday morning.

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“At 91 I don’t like to go out,” Jim Duffy, a Meals on Wheels recipient, said. “If I had to go out and get groceries and all that it’s kind of an ordeal.”

Duffy has lived on a fixed income for more than twenty years now. For the last three years, he’s received Meals on Wheels through the Senior Resource Alliance, Central Florida’s Area Agency on Aging.

“It relieves you because you know you have a meal coming, and you’re going to have it at lunch or dinner,” Duffy said. “It really allows you to not even worry about it.”

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The agency offers support to elders and caregivers in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Brevard counties year-round.

Lorraine Naetzker is the Program Manager Assistant for Meals on Wheels. She said the need increases during the holidays which can be an especially isolating time for those older adults.

“Many seniors are isolated, they don’t really have anyone,” Naetzker said. “They really look forward to those volunteers who come every day, check on them with a smile, and love on them.”

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Beyond the delivery of food, Duffy said the social interaction is what he enjoys the most.

“I like to have them come; we get to shoot the breeze for a while,” Duffy said. “They go out of their way to make sure you’re going to be taken care of over the holidays.”

Through the Senior Resource Alliance, meals are delivered daily to nearly 300 seniors in Seminole County. Naetsker said because of the economy that number is higher than normal.

“They’ll call in and we get many seniors that will tell us I’ve never called for help before, but I really need to reach out,” Naetsker said. “Our phone is ringing a lot more than we’ve seen in the past.”

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