Elder Services Conducts Raffle for Meals on Wheels
Elder Services is conducting a raffle to raise money for its Meals on Wheels program. The grand prize is a pair of round-trip Southwestern Airlines tickets. Other top prizes include two tickets to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park, a Round of Golf for Four with two carts from Cranwell Resort, a $250 gift certificate from Zabian’s Jewelers, a $125 gift certificate from American Auto Detailing, a $100 gift certificate from Ward’s Nursery, in Great Barrington, a $100 gift certificate from George’s Liquors in Pittsfield, a $100 gift certificate from Crown Jewelers, $100 off Benjamin Moore Paint from Lee Hardware, a Freshwater Pearl Necklace from Evergreen in Great Barrington, and a $75 gift certificate from Mill on the Floss Restaurant. Altogether there are over 55 prizes.Tickets cost $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. A full prize list can be found on Elder Services’ website, www.esbci.org, or can be picked up at the agency’s offices at 66 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Wendell Avenue location, and will also be sold by Elder Services staff and Board members at the following locations:
July 12, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m, Pittsfield Wal-Mart and Merrill Road Stop & Shop
July 19, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., North Adams Stop & Shop and Dan Fox Drive Stop & Shop
July 26, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Harry’s Supermarkets at both Elm and Wahconah Street
Elder Services’ Nutrition/Meals on Wheels program serves all of Berkshire County. Last year, Elder Services’ kitchen prepared over a quarter of a million meals, producing more than 1,000 hot, nourishing meals a day each Monday through Friday. Over 200,000 meals were delivered directly to the homes of frail seniors, and the rest served to seniors attending 14 lunch sites located throughout the county. Drivers travel more than 226,000 miles each year to bring hot, nutritious, home-delivered meals to frail homebound seniors each weekday.
Federal funding for Elder Services’ Nutrition/Meals on Wheels program has remained basically the same for the past 13 years, while the cost of purchasing and preparing the food, and delivering the meals to the homes of frail seniors has continued to grow. The program has been dangerously under-funded for years, even as the cost of food and gasoline has skyrocketed. The Meals on Wheels program, which has a very lean budget, has been hit particularly hard, and needs community support in the form of donations, sponsorships, grants and this raffle, to help reduce its operating deficit.
The drawing for the raffle will be held at Elder Services on August 28.
