Twenty people who keep kosher and are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals are now receiving assistance from Kosher Meals on Wheels. KMOW, organized under the auspices of the Torah Learning Center and run by Susie Klinock, had hoped to be up and running in January. It took a little longer than expected, but the organization is now in full swing. Clients first began receiving meals in May.
“Our goal is still to hit 50 clients by the fall, God willing,” Klinock said.
There is already a waiting list ready to fill those spots, Klinock said. All they need is more volunteers and more money.
Clients needs to qualify for KMOW services through a screening process. Those who are referred by Jewish Family Services have already been screened. For the others, Klinock said it’s a short and simple process.
“Rabbis are very much encouraged to let us know when they have a member in need that we don’t know anything about who needs help. The rabbis are all behind this program,” she said.
Most, but not all, of the KMOW clients are over age 60.
“If somebody is physically handicapped, are younger and unable to stand and prepare meals for themselves, we help them, too,” Klinock said.
Most clients receive five frozen meals a week and are encouraged to pay “a little something” toward the cost of the meals. The full cost for the meals and supplies is $12.50 per meal or $62.50 per week.
“Of course we have a sliding scale program so people can pay whatever they can do without hurting them financially,” Klinock said. “Some people are able to pay full cost. They just want the service, which is great.”
KMOW has no paid staff. Klinock is a volunteer as are all the cooks and drivers.
A typical meal consists of a meat for protein, vegetables and a fruit. Often a client gets three helpings of soup for the week as well.
“Soup is very popular, even in the summer,” Klinock said.
A dietician, also a volunteer, is on board to make sure all the meals fill proper nutritional standards. Klinock is proud that the local KMOW is doing something that no other Meals on Wheels program in the country is currently providing.
“Those programs are providing one-third of the daily nutritional requirements in their meals,” she said. “We know that this is the only decent meal that a lot of these people get, so we are providing half of the daily nutritional requirements in one meal.”
Two crews of volunteers are now set to cook the meals, generally in the mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the kosher kitchen at TLC.
“We are thinking about putting second shifts on those days. And we definitely need more volunteers for everything,” Klinock said.
Currently KMOW has about 40 volunteers, about evenly split between cooks and meal delivery drivers. All the drivers have taken a one-hour training program. Drivers also serve as friendly visitors, checking in with the clients during each delivery day.
The visits have been well received. One woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, has a relative who is ill and is currently receiving meals from KMOW. She said Rabbi Benzion Friedman has spent time with her loved one while delivering his meal, and asked the man if he wanted to lay tefillin, which he did.
“It gave him such a warm feeling inside to just know someone cares,” she said.
Klinock hopes to train more drivers very soon.
“In order to grow we have to have more drivers because not everybody can drive every week,” she said.
“We have a couple of people who drive and cook, and of course that’s fantastic. But we don’t require that. We’re just appreciative of anything people can do,” she continued.
One volunteer who does both is TLC member Keren Huff. She chose KMOW because when she learned about it, she thought it was an awesome thing to help out with.
“I am just grateful that whoever came up with the idea did it because I know there is a great need in the community for something like this,” Huff said.
Once a week she goes to TLC for three hours to cook. She spends another hour and a half delivering a meal and visiting with the client.
She hopes others will give their time as well to this worthy cause because “they need the help really badly.”
Huff said the woman she delivers to is “very, very grateful for what we are doing.”
“I understand all of the people are very grateful for what we do,” she said.
Klinock said they have had lots of positive feedback to the program already.
“They are raving about the meals. They say they are really good and they are also saying that they feel better, which of course has always been one of our goals and that’s because they are getting at least one meal a day that’s nutritionally sound,” Klinock said.
As it hopes to add clients in the future, Klinock said KMOW will continue to need more volunteers and will look at ways to raise more funds. KMOW currently sells pareve cookies by special order and will sell them at the Kansas City Kosher BBQ Competition & Festival Sunday, Aug. 18, on the grounds of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. Down the road it hopes to expand its Kosher to Go service to include offering full meals and possibly even catering. For more information about Kosher to Go, call 913-735-3663 or email .
Klinock acknowledged that even though she and her team spent 16 months researching and getting ready to launch this program, they are still learning how to best do things and “smooth out the wrinkles.”
“Everybody said this whole first year is really a learning process and they were right,” she said. “No matter how much research we did, there were still some problems that you can’t think of initially. But we are working it all out. If we have a problem, we clear it up the next week. And it’s been a lot of fun.”
