{"id":9996,"date":"2016-12-21T00:12:05","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T05:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=9996"},"modified":"2016-12-21T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T06:00:00","slug":"more-brick-seniors-relied-on-meals-on-wheels-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/12\/more-brick-seniors-relied-on-meals-on-wheels-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"More Brick Seniors Relied on Meals on Wheels in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meals<\/a>

Meals are prepared in a kitchen for Ocean County senior citizens. (Photo: Ocean County Meals on Wheels)<\/p><\/div>\n

The number of Brick\u2019s senior citizens who relied on the county\u2019s Meals on Wheels program increased in 2016, with over 31,000 meals having been delivered.<\/p>\n

Jim Sigurdson, executive director of Meals on Wheels for the county, spoke of the increased number of residents relying on the program at a Brick Township council meeting Tuesday night. He was there to accept a $10,000 grant the township obtained for the program from the federal Community Development Block Grant program.<\/p>\n

In 2015, 252 seniors received about 30,000 meals. This year, the number of seniors in the program rose to 261, with over 31,000 meals delivered. The program also hosts able-bodied\u00a0seniors at the township\u2019s senior center (located at the VFW Post on Adamston Road) and provides transportation for them to get there. Brick\u2019s commitment to the program is impressive, Sigurdson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat service alone saves me over $70,000 a year,\u201d he said, of the transportation provided by Brick. \u201cWe\u2019re not just about giving meals.\u00a0That senior center provides social and recreational service to the people we feed. Those people don\u2019t just sit there, they have something meaningful and fulfilling to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meal is the lifeline for so many of the seniors that call Ocean County home,\u201d said Ocean County Freeholder Director Jack\u00a0Kelly at a recent meeting of the county freeholder board. \u201cWith that meal comes a wellness check, someone that will spend some time and listen, a person that may be the only contact this senior will have all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county recently awarded contracts to continue the program in 2017. The contracts cover \u201ccongregate\u201d meals \u2013 those served at senior centers like the one on Adamston Road, as well as the traditional Meals on Wheels program. The cost of the congregate meal contract is $782,173 while the home delivered and weekend-holiday meal contracts total $1,819,517.<\/p>\n

As of the end of November, 256,000 meals had\u00a0already been delivered in 2016 county-wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to keep people healthy and happy and living in our communities, instead of institutions that cost money,\u201d said Sigurdson. \u201cIt costs more for one day\u2019s hospital stay than a year of Meals on Wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sigurdson called Brick the \u201cmost reliable supporter\u201d of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residents of Brick should be proud that you have a mayor and council who supports this program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> Anyone interested in the Meals on Wheels program should visit the service\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of Brick\u2019s senior citizens who relied on the county\u2019s Meals on Wheels program increased in 2016, with over 31,000 meals having been delivered. Jim Sigurdson, executive director of Meals on Wheels for the county, spoke of the increased number of residents relying on the program at a Brick Township council meeting Tuesday night. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,634,1592],"class_list":["post-9996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-meals-on-wheels","tag-ocean-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/meals_wheelsoc.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2Be","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}