Winona Volunteer Services Inc

Home delivered meals began locally in 1971 and serves qualifying residents of the cities of winona and goodview. Volunteers deliver mid-morning meals to approximately 92 homebound and convalescing adults monday through friday, year-round. 95 individual volunteers, 10 businesses and 11 congregations cover the eleven routes. Clients either pay for their own meal at $6.25 or $6.75 with milk or are on a waiver through the county in which their insurance pays for their meals. The client services coordinator qualifies individuals for this program, monitors their meal requests, and reconciles the monthly billing with insurers and steak shop catering. Our bookkeeper sends the reconciled bills to the clients. Our program is not affiliated with the meals on wheels delivery service, which is federally funded, coordinated by semcac and serves people in greater winona county.

Over the last couple of decades, wvs developed the coordinated assistance program. Our partners- the local churches, law enforcement and other service providers- tell anyone looking for assistance that wvs is the one-stop-shop in winona county for people experiencing unexpected circumstances. Our client services coordinator utilizes a network of community resources to make appropriate referrals or issue vouchers according to specific guidelines. Since winona has abundant resources, referring individuals to our centralized hub saves everyone time, makes getting help simpler, and ultimately reduces duplication of services. Wvs is also fortunate that a specialized fund from the winona community foundation allows us to issue vouchers for gasoline, bus tickets, lodging, diapers, cab rides, clothing, rent, dental services and id's, etc. Based on each individual's challenging situations. Through this program, 510 vouchers were issued to 429 different households totaling $40,400 in financial assistance. Additionally, $1,121 free clothing vouchers were issued to individuals for clothes shop. Staff made 588 intentional referrals to connect individuals to other community resources.our nutrition educator helps people acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to improve their nutritional wellbeing. She talks with individuals in the food shelf and on the telephone about the meals they prepare with the food shelf items. Additionally, she monitors the food inventory by placing weekly orders with our channel one food bank and coordinates the "groceries on the go" program.

The clothes shopthe clothes shop reopened on july 1, 2024. Throughout the next six months, volunteers gave 2,743 hours selling 18,196 items totaling $77,520 in sales to support our operations. The clothes shop provides low-cost, high quality clothing to trendsetters, bargain hunters, the eco-friendly and anyone looking for a great deal 4,076 parcels were donated, sorted, and put out for sale during the short time we were open.holiday projectswvs staff coordinates the free congregate easter dinner, compliments of chartwells dining service out of st mary's university. Nineteen volunteers delivered 384 meals to winona residents on easter sunday. The lion's club and the elizabeth callender king foundation donated 500 ham meals including fresh produce.