Meals on Wheels America Expands Services During COVID-19 Pandemic

The managing director of investments and wealth management, Keefe Gorman works at Merrill Lynch in Ithaca, New York. A member of many nonprofit organizations, Keefe Gorman contributes to Meals on Wheels America. Meals on Wheels America pairs meal deliveries to older people living alone with regular social interaction with the deliverer to combat malnutrition, loneliness, and isolation in this population.

Meals on Wheels began in Philadelphia in 1954, by a group of local volunteers. Their meal delivery services expanded over the years, taking root in over 5,000 cities nationwide. Via a combination of local, state, federal, and private funding sources, the organization can deliver its meals, with the necessary staff, at a wider scale than other groups of its kind.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Meals on Wheels started the Make Good Go Further campaign, mobilizing its preexisting resources, and expanding its capacity. It donated 1,000 grants, totaling over 31.3 million dollars, to 628 individual hospitals, directly assisting frontline workers. By July of 2020 their volunteers delivered over 19 million meals, serving an additional 1 million older adults.