The Meals on Wheels '23 Days of Christmas' campaign runs through December. (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Meals on Wheels ’23 Days of Christmas’ campaign set to deliver hot meals this December

Nov 30, 2021 | 12:15 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The 13^th annual Meals on Wheels ’23 Days of Christmas’ campaign has already received a boatload of support before it’s officially begun.

MOW delivers prepared meals every day for members of the community who cannot provide for themselves. The service has been operating in Lethbridge since 1970 and is now a part of the Lethbridge Senior Citizen Organization (LSCO). On average, 2,000 meals are delivered over 23 days in December.

The December initiative, which is spearheaded by Teamworks Career Centre and Select People Solutions, kicks off Wednesday, December 1. The goal is to sponsor all of the month’s meals through the ’23 Days of Christmas’. Businesses, community members and organizations can become Honorary Chefs and sponsor a full day of meals.

Alternatively, anyone looking to help out can sponsor a single meal by buying a special MOW Christmas Card. Honorary Chefs can also help deliver the meals on their sponsored day.

Calendar listing sponsors for the campaign. (Lethbridge News Now)

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Over the last 13 years, the campaign has collected more than $250,000 for the Meals on Wheels program. The goal for 2021 is to raise $30,000, which acknowledges Teamworks and Select’s 30-year anniversary operating in Lethbridge.

Ryan Miller, the CEO of Teamworks Training, said the support seen so far has been incredible.

“On day one, to know that we have 99 per cent of our days already sponsored for the Meals on Wheels organization is a great start to start our Christmas Card campaign, so what’s left to do is to continue to go ahead and get some people involved in this great campaign.”

The cards can be purchased at local sponsors Italian Table, Urban Grocers, and Cuppers Coffee and Tea. The cards are $20 each and include a $20 gift certificate inside to the participating business. For every card purchased, the partners will donate $10 to sponsor one meal.

Miller added that sponsorships could continue into January, depending on how December goes.

“The fact is, the more funds that we can generate for this organization keeps them vibrant throughout the year and allows them to service more people, so we’ll sponsor all of January if we need to.”

He added that the campaign is “really to help this organization deliver valuable services to people in the community, and those can be seniors, those can be people that just have other life barriers or circumstances [where] they don’t get out or don’t have the income to necessarily have hot meals.”

“The work that this organization does to allow at least that person to have a hot meal every single day is critical work. The clientele is much more diverse today than ever before, so they need more and more help.”

Rob Miyashiro, executive director of the LSCO said it’s extremely encouraging receiving so much support even before the campaign has begun.

“When you see the support from the community to help us to support the community, it’s amazing. We are so grateful for what Ryan and Teamworks do for our program. We’re so grateful for the support they get from their own business partners.”

He said amid the pandemic, seeing such strong support is so important.

“It allows us to continue to do the good work that we’re doing.”

Miyashiro explained that the money raised for Meals on Wheels goes towards subsidizing the cost of meals, noting “it doesn’t pay for their [clients] meals the way that we think that it does.”

“What it does is allows us to charge way less for the meals than it costs our kitchen to produce them…without a program like this, our customers in Meals on Wheels would be paying way more.”

He added that having an initiative like the ’23 Days of Christmas’ is “so helpful and so much appreciated.”

Anyone looking to get involved can contact Teamworks at (403) 382-3770 or visit them online here. More on the Meals on Wheels program is available here.