Community Emergency Services Inc

Home delivery (hd) provided almost 121,300 pounds of free healthy and culturally familiar groceries to a monthly average of over 295 seniors (equivalent to over 145,500 meals) (3). Hunger was up across minnesota last year and visits to food increased. But not all seniors could visit their local grocery store or food shelf. Many seniors had barriers like transportation, mobility and health issues, and strict budgetary constraints, so home delivery brought the food shelf to their door. On average, each delivery included 30-40 pounds of food. Beyond meals, 100% of new clients received "intake" interviews and all clients received vital socialization and connection to resources, which equipped them to continue living independently. After the impact of the pandemic with a new "normal, and the continued rising cost of food, there was a growing number of those in need of home delivery services. About 85% of ces food shelf visitors self-identify as black, indigenous, a person of color, or multi-racial. To qualify, hd clients must be at or below 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines. For our home delivery program, we offered a full choice model. Clients received a shopping list or were contacted via a phone call and could freely select items from various categories (including many culturally specific options). Volunteers pre-packed the groceries for each client and delivered them to recipients on a specified day, providing free nutritious food along with a friendly visit by volunteers. Altogether, it took almost 700 volunteers to fill the orders, pack, and deliver the food. This equaled about 1,700 (8) volunteer hours of service. The recipients received close to 40 pounds of food and hygiene once a month, including meat, eggs, and dairy products, as well as additional fresh produce. To better meet the needs of all hd participants, ces increased the amount of culturally familiar foods. Additionally, a phone call to clients was made so they could request culturally, or dietary specific items not offered on the list. Rising food expenses strained the ces' budget. Yet, ces purchased what we could (with available budgets) and worked with food drive partners, local congregations, etc., to provide additional requested items. Since a substantial portion of program participants were immigrants from east and west africa, our home delivery program consistently offered goat meat, fish, larger quantities of fresh produce, flour, sugar, rice, dates for ramadan, etc. Sourcing a variety of foods for hd became more difficult as supply chain issues impacted our food bank and retail partners' inventories and prices. With the changing climate of less volunteers and the increased needs of the recipients, it became necessary to seek more funding and grants to upgrade the processes and equipment to adequately supply those in the home delivery program. Despite these constraints, ces was committed to equipping low-income, homebound seniors to eat healthy and culturally familiar meals and bring a vital sense of community. . . Right to their door.

One of the largest meals on wheels (ces mow) program in minnesota, ces mow provided daily delivery to an average of 300-330 homebound seniors and disabled adults of hot or frozen meals (depending on the client's preference), a friendly smile and a daily visit and wellness check. The purpose of ces mow is to assist people to live in their homes rather than institutions, providing them with a quality of life while at the same time a savings to government social programs. In total, over 2,600 volunteers delivered an equivalent of almost 105,200 pounds and 87,700 healthy prepared meals to about 615 (5) homebound seniors and adults with disabilities or health conditions across the phillips community and adjacent areas of south minneapolis, loring nicollet area, downtown minneapolis, and north minneapolis logging over 4,600 hours of service. Seventy percent of clients were seniors, and the remaining 30 percent were adults (non-seniors) that have a disability or underlying health condition that kept them homebound. Mow was open to all seniors and adults who were homebound, but 94% were low-income and unable to privately pay for their meals. The majority of clients' meals were subsidized, in part, by funding from hennepin county or the federal title iii older americans act. 46% were female and 54% were male. 40% were african/african american, 40% were caucasian, 2% were hispanic/latino, 4% were native american, 1% were asian, and 13% were unreported/other. Without ces mow, nearly all our 620+ clients would experience hunger and food insecurity or end up in an institution. Ces has made many program adaptations that make ces mow more inclusive for our neighbors (e.g., increased our distribution of culturally familiar foods, hiring a multilingual staff, making print materials available in multiple languages, etc.) additionally, meals on wheels accommodate many cultural and dietary needs (e.g., pork-free, halal, low-sodium, vegan, vegetarian, lactose-free, gluten-free). Ces, along with area organizations, operated a central commissary to prepare and package catered meals for a coalition of mow programs that saved countless funds. During the holidays, mow delivered holiday meals (thanksgiving and christmas eve), holiday gifts, and holiday cheer. Household essentials (home goods, cleaning, and hygiene products) were provided to clients in need, which included fans to those who do not have air conditioning in the summer, as well as winter jackets, hats, and mittens to clients who do not have adequate winter gear. Other support for clients was offered as well (e.g., emergency financial support, delivering birthday gifts, connecting clients with resources like snap and utility assistance, etc.). For the first time ever, ces received an americorps vista as part of a project to expand our outreach to potential mow clients and volunteers. Ces mow equips the most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged seniors in minneapolis to age in place versus paying for more expensive care (often passed on to local taxpayers). Ces mow can deliver nourishing meals for a year for less than $3,500 per individual. On the other hand, the mn dhs estimates that annually it costs $60,000 for 44 hours per week of in-home care, $48,000 for an assisted living facility and over $90,000 for nursing home care. "when you have no family, life gets heavy. The volunteers at ces listen and do not judge. I am healthier because of the services at ces." from a grateful mow client.

One thing that sets ces apart is our one-to-one caring. Ces seeks to help clients meet their needs through support to move beyond crisis by taking time to build relationships whereby people are encouraged to move into a productive life. Besides our three main programs, holiday gifts for isolated seniors, holiday gift cards for food shelf recipients (which were used to purchase culturally appropriate meat choices), household supplies, bibles, yearly backpacks and school supplies, winter gear, and occasional gift cards were also given to those in need. Only as funds are available, ces provides gas and bus cards or bus tokens for a client to get to work and some utility assistance, specifically for water, and to keep people in their homes and monetary housing assistance to prevent homelessness. If ces is unable to provide a service, we have an extensive list of other resources/organizations that might be able to help that person's specific need. In fiscal year 2024, over 3,172 individuals and families received about $21,440 in aid and over 1,900 referrals were made to other organizations or additional services. Additionally, staff are always available at all food distributions and make a point of interfacing with clients on a one-on-one basis to solicit feedback, ideas, and suggestions. As part of our mission - building community - we continue to work with the emergency food assistance program (tefap), which provides government commodities and the nutrition assistance program for seniors (naps), providing food boxes in partnership with second harvest heartland food bank for those over 60. Ani-meals, a separate meals on wheels program, ensured that our senior companions had the same access to healthy food and care. For many of these homebound clients, a pet provides vial companionship, but many clients shared their food with their pets as they struggled to make ends meet. Ani-meals served our neighbors both with two legs and four. In fiscal year 2024, ces ani-meals provided pet food, veterinary care, medications, supplies, etc. So our isolated clients could care for a companion pet. Ani-meals served 136 pets of 70 seniors. Our motto "feeding pets, feeding hearts." jamie dolynchuk joined ces in fall 2023 as our new president. Under the leadership of mr. Dolynchuk and our board of directors, ces is building a bold vision for how we can deepen and expand our impact for our low-income neighbors across the phillips community and beyond. The phillips-midtown community has long been a gateway to newly arriving immigrants - many who have a period of food insecurity. Ces sees great privilege and responsibility in welcoming and serving these new members of our community. To meet the diverse and unique needs of our neighbors, ces offers program models that are geared towards different age groups and provides culturally familiar and culturally universal foods, multilingual signage and website, and multilingual translation via staff and volunteers.