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Princeton’s Meals on Wheels program set to fold before end of month

Meals on Wheels, a service that supplies approximately eight Princeton seniors with home cooked food seven days a week, will close June 26.
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A home made soup and sandwich is one of the meal choices clients can make. Photo Andrea DeMeer May 2020.

Meals on Wheels, a service that supplies approximately eight Princeton seniors with home cooked food seven days a week, will close June 26.

“We are just devastated,” said Becky Vermette, executive director of Princeton and District Community Services Society (PDCSS), which operates the service.

Meals and Wheels has no specific funder, and has relied on user fees and donations to keep it afloat.

However, “it is now a financial hardship for the society.”

Presently clients pay either $8 or $9 for a meal delivered, depending on which menu option they select.

The balance of the cost — more than twice that amount — is covered by the PDCSS.

“These are seniors who have lost the ability to shop for themselves and prepare food,” said Vermette.

The society is connecting its clients with the Princeton Health Unit, which operates a program providing frozen food delivery to residents once a week.

While that might help some people, it lacks the daily ‘check-in’ that was guaranteed by Meals on Wheels, she said.

“That’s just huge.”

Vermette is hopeful a volunteer group in the community could take over Meals on Wheels, and didn’t rule out being able to continue at some point, if grant funding can be secured.

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Andrea DeMeer

About the Author: Andrea DeMeer

Andrea is the publisher of the Similkameen Spotlight.
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