BY JALEN WADE and IJEOMA OPARA
Meals on Wheels of College Park, which moved out of the city in 2021 into a larger space, is not scheduled to return any time soon.
Although Lisa Eally, the local chapter’s chair, said at the time that the move would be temporary, she said the organization has not found a College Park location with enough space for cooking, equipment, storage and parking.
“We’re doing whatever we can to find a location back in College Park,” Eally told College Park Here & Now. “We thought that we had a location in College Park, but ultimately we decided that would not be a good fit for us, so we did not go forward with that. [City] councilmembers still would like us to come back to College Park.”
That location was Flats at College Park, a 317-unit affordable apartment building under construction on Route 1 between Delaware and Cherokee streets, but the organization reportedly was unable to come to an agreement with the developer about the use of the space.
Meals on Wheels of College Park, which distributes meals to senior citizens who are unable to shop or prepare their own food, had operated out of the College Park United Methodist Church since it started in 1974. Its current location is the Elks Lodge building on Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale.
The College Park City Council had planned to tap $800,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation—federal money granted during the pandemic—to help the organization pay for its move back to the city.
But by law, the council has to formally allocate all of its ARPA funds by the end of this year, so when the Flats deal fell through and the organization put its move on hold, the council reallocated the money tp other city projects, including a renovation of Attick Towers, a public housing apartment building for senior citizens.
At the same time, however, the council set aside $400,000 out of its general funds for Meals on Wheels to use if it moves during fiscal year 2025, which ends in June. That amount far exceeds the city’s usual annual donation of $10,000 to $15,000 to help pay for meals.
In addition, the council allocated $455,000 of ARPA money, which it divided among Meals on Wheels and four other local meal delivery services to spend over the next two years.
Councilmember Stuart Adams (District 3) said the council has “put emphasis [and] substantial dollars” into supporting nonprofit food services. “The support that the city has pushed toward these types of services are magnitudes [more than] what it used to be. … The overall intent, the overall investment is just magnitudes greater, and it hasn’t faltered.”
Eally said the demand for meals skyrocketed during the pandemic from about 30 to 40 seniors to nearly 200. In addition, the organization’s staff has grown from 50 volunteers to 125.
City Councilmember John Rigg (District 3) said the city is evaluating how much support it can offer to meal services in the future, now that federal ARPA funding will no longer be available.
“The organization also needs to make sure that they’re sustainable from other revenue sources,” Rigg said. “They need to make sure they have diversified those revenue sources.”
Rigg added: “Now that the public health emergency is over and the economy is in pretty good shape, I think there’s been an interest in lots of areas to kind of re-baseline, figure out where we want to be as a city, you know, going forward, not just in terms of Meals on Wheels.”
Meals on Wheels operates on a mix of donations, government assistance and payments of $6 a day from clients, who get breakfast, lunch and dinner, according to Eally.
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Meals on Wheels turns 50
By JALEN WADE
Meals on Wheels of College Park turned 50 this year.
The local chapter began in 1974 and worked out of the College Park United Methodist Church on Rhode Island Avenue until 2021, when it outgrew its space because of heightened demand for meals.
The organization moved in 2021 to the Elks Lodge building on Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale.
The group delivered 67,500 meals so far in 2024 to senior citizens who need assistance shopping for and preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner, according to Lisa Eally, the chapter’s chair.
Beatrice Wallace, a volunteer who makes and bags sandwiches, said she joined to remain active when she retired. Working with Meals On Wheels has given her the chance to help and meet new people, Wallace said.
“I really enjoy doing this, and I’ve made a lot of new friends, and you just feel good about doing something for someone else, especially folk that you know are disabled or they’re sick [and] they can’t do for themselves,” Wallace said. “It just makes me feel good to be able to do that.”
The group of 125 volunteers and two paid staff members delivers meals in College Park, Greenbelt, Beltsville, Berwyn Heights and Adelphi.