Salisbury Commissioner Joins 'March for Meals'

Local business, government and religious leaders joined Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County volunteers on Wednesday to deliver meals to homebound seniors.

The group gave the organization's usual team of volunteers a day off for March for Meals day, an annual event intended to bring awareness to the need for home-delivered meals to help keep homebound seniors and adults with disabilities well-nourished and independent.

Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County 2012 statistics:

• 350 clients served each day
• 85,149 visits were made to clients
• 135,285 meals were delivered
• 33 delivery routes
• 66 volunteers needed every day
• 1,069 total number of volunteers (includes individuals and groups)
• 36,593 hours donated by volunteers
• 153,794 total miles volunteers drove
• 73 percent of clients were age 75 or over
• 60 percent of clients lived alone
• 87 percent needed their meals subsidized
• $1,003,765 annual expenses
• $433,582 amount that had to be raised from individual, group and corporate donations, fundraising events and grants to supplement meal costs for clients with low incomes.
• Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County has delivered more than 6 million meals since its founding in 1971.

Among the volunteers who attended Wednesday were: South Whitehall Township Commissioner Tori Morgan; Salisbury Township Commissioner James Brown; Lower Macungie Commissioner Roger Reiss; Mayors Ed Hozza of Whitehall  and Walter Niedermeyer of Slatington; Lehigh County Commissioners Scott Ott and Brad Osborne; Lehigh County Director of Administration Tom Muller; staff from the office of state Rep. Mike Schlossberg and state Sen. Pat Browne, and others joining Meals On Wheels of Lehigh County board members and volunteers.