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Speaker 1: The talk station A thirty fifty five KRC the talk station.

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Speaker 1: It's some charity love going on there. We had Patty

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Speaker 1: Scott from Hartford Seniors on the program earlier talking about

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Speaker 1: the wonderful services and benefits they offer for seniors, you know,

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Speaker 1: those that are getting cared for either in the home

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Speaker 1: or in assisted living facilities. And let's pivot on over

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Speaker 1: to those who maybe need a nice hot meal delivered

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Speaker 1: to them in studio. Mike Hogan and Natalie cooking from

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Speaker 1: meals on Wheels, which you can find online at much

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Speaker 1: more than a meal dot org. Welcome to the Morning show.

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Speaker 1: Let me initially start by thanking you for what you're

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Speaker 1: doing each and every day, and I know you got

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Speaker 1: some real exciting news to pass along to my listeners.

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Speaker 1: It's welcome to the studio. Thanks Brian, thanks for having

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Speaker 1: us and appreciate you being a Westsider. Give me a

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Speaker 1: little bit of love in here in the morning. Mike's

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Speaker 1: good have you in even though you were a lisalgrad.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna hold that again ship you see though.

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Speaker 2: Right that's well, I was at UC for a long time.

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Speaker 2: I'll give a shout out to our daughter Abby go

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Speaker 2: Bearcats tomorrow go against a big game against BYU.

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Speaker 1: Natalie, we didn't go past your educational background. Are you

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Speaker 1: a local girl?

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Speaker 3: I grew up in Dayton, so I'm a little bit local,

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Speaker 3: but I did marry a Westsider.

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Speaker 1: Wow at your element huh A little bit? Yeah, let

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Speaker 1: me guess he's a frugal, financially conservative guy. Sure, there's

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Speaker 1: always an outlier. I always said it was in the

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Speaker 1: genetic pull over the west Side. You know, frugality rules

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Speaker 1: the day, or at least it did as I was

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Speaker 1: growing up, and it's something I inherited from my West

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Speaker 1: Side blood or maybe my parents. But yeah, very frugal

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Speaker 1: and conservative when it comes to whether or not you're

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Speaker 1: going to spend money. All right, moving away from that,

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Speaker 1: talking about meals on wheels, How long has meals on

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Speaker 1: Wheel's been around? I was looking at the statistics of

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Speaker 1: the number of seniors that you held, pretty overwhelming number

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Speaker 1: out there, but meals on wheels, let me remind my

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Speaker 1: listeners to the extent they're not familiar with it, what

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Speaker 1: you do each and every day, the nature of the organizations.

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Speaker 1: Then we'll pivot over to this exciting news you've got.

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Speaker 2: Sure, thanks for so Meals on the wheels of Southwest

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Speaker 2: Ohio and Northern Kentucky has really been operating under that

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Speaker 2: brand since about twenty twenty two. In the COVID era,

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Speaker 2: we were able to come together with two other nonprofits

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Speaker 2: in town. Our history really dates back to nineteen thirty

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Speaker 2: seven as Wesley Community Services. During the pandemic, we merged

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Speaker 2: with Cincinnati Area Senior Services also known as CASS and

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Speaker 2: fifty five North, which was the Hyde Park Senior Center.

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Speaker 1: I seem to recall my dad having some connection with Wesley.

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Speaker 2: Jerry absolutely was involved with Wesley for many, many years.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's wonderful. I'm glad that there's that, you know,

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Speaker 1: personal connection, just different name, same kind of helping out.

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Speaker 1: So you home deliver meals. We use it for folks

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Speaker 1: that are house bound, you know, shut in types, folks

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Speaker 1: without the family and structural support to get fed every day.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, so, I think a lot of us, a

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Speaker 2: lot of folks know us for our home delivered meal program.

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Speaker 2: We serve over ten thousand clients in the Greater Cincinnati

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Speaker 2: Northern Kentucky area. About seventy five hundred of those are

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Speaker 2: our home delivered meal clients. Beyond that, We also provide

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Speaker 2: nutrition at over twenty congregate sites throughout the city. That's

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Speaker 2: anything from the Green Township Senior Center over on the

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Speaker 2: west side over to the east side and the Anderson

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Speaker 2: and Senior Center, and then we have over we have

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Speaker 2: about fourteen sites in northern Kentucky that we're at daily providing,

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Speaker 2: providing meals, lunches, breakfasts. It's folks for a place for

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Speaker 2: them to gather. Beyond that, we have a pretty robust

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Speaker 2: transportation program.

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Speaker 1: You do, yeah, we do.

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Speaker 2: We're able to provide about forty thousand individual trips a

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Speaker 2: year for grocery stores, doctors' offices, social gatherings, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Just a way to get folks out of the house

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Speaker 2: who don't have the ability to maybe drive anymore, or

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Speaker 2: looking for kind of that social interaction.

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Speaker 1: I had no idea. And these are all services that

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Speaker 1: you offer to the senior community at no cost or

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Speaker 1: is it a cost associated with it, because of course,

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Speaker 1: I mean gasoline sales, food costs are food is outrageous.

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Speaker 1: Let's all uniformally agree the price of food's gone through

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Speaker 1: the roof and everybody's complaining about it. So how does

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Speaker 1: the operation deal with these financially sure.

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Speaker 2: So all of our services go through the Council line

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Speaker 2: Aging of Southwestern Ohio. Any client who wishes to take

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Speaker 2: a look at the services that we can provide can

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Speaker 2: reach out to them directly. They'll work through the intake,

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Speaker 2: they'll get them set up and get them connected with

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Speaker 2: us as well, and we can go through, you know,

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Speaker 2: just the variety of services that we offer, and we provide.

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Speaker 1: Wonderful and again that's much more than a meal dot

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Speaker 1: Org said very slowly and articulating the words, much more

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Speaker 1: than a meal dot or because there if you type

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Speaker 1: in meals on wheels in your search engine. There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of these organizations that's wonderful and it's great

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Speaker 1: that they're everywhere, But if you want the one locally,

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Speaker 1: you want to maybe make a gift. I encourage my

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Speaker 1: listeners to do that, most notably this time of year

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Speaker 1: or volunteer. We'll talk about some of the additional things

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Speaker 1: that we as a community can do for them, and

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Speaker 1: the announcement about a new well, I'm not even going

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Speaker 1: to reveal anything. It's a little teaser there. We got

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Speaker 1: some important things to talk about. We will continue with

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Speaker 1: Mike and Natalie from Meals on wheels don't go away

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Speaker 1: fifty five KRC Do you own a small business? A

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Speaker 1: seismic shift is coming. It's time to get super short

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Speaker 1: cod of KRCD talk station A thirty eight coming E

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Speaker 1: thirty nine. If you have KCD talk station Meals on

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Speaker 1: Wheels by Cogan and Natalie cooking in studio. They're for

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Speaker 1: meals on wheels, find them locally much more than a

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Speaker 1: meal dot Org and I we're talking to them. I

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Speaker 1: was talking to them on the break, Mike and Natalie

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Speaker 1: about they do all these meal preparations in house ninety

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Speaker 1: nine point nine percent the vast majority you are cooking

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Speaker 1: the meals in house. And then of course they have

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Speaker 1: folks that are volunteering and delivering the meals to those

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Speaker 1: seniors out there in the world that need them. We

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Speaker 1: went through a little bit of the betting process on that.

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Speaker 1: But you reach over ten thousand seniors you mentioned, but

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Speaker 1: the number of meals, which will move over and segue

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Speaker 1: into the announcement you have you outgrew your facility. It

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Speaker 1: sounds like by an overwhelming amount. Let my listeners know

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Speaker 1: how many meals you prepare annually and what your facility

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Speaker 1: was set up to do versus what you actually do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a little tight on space right now, Brian.

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Speaker 2: We're the building that we're in, we've been in for

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Speaker 2: a number of years, and we're designed optimally to be

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Speaker 2: about three hundred thousand meals a year to produce in house.

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Speaker 2: Right now we're producing about one point two million meals.

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Speaker 2: So we're at the max for sure.

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Speaker 1: For sure, there's that much need and demand out there,

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Speaker 1: there is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and what.

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Speaker 3: You're yeah, well, I think our distribution manager said it best.

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Speaker 3: We can't do any more, but we can't do any less.

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Speaker 3: We can't do anymore because we are really truly at capacity,

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Speaker 3: and we can't do any less because the need is

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Speaker 3: there and the need is growing.

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Speaker 1: So you how many total meals on Wheels organizations are

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Speaker 1: there out there in the country? It is ever five thousand,

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Speaker 1: five thousand, and where where does Cincinnati and the much

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Speaker 1: more than meal dot org Meals on Wheels chapter here

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Speaker 1: in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky. Where does it rank

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Speaker 1: among those five thousand?

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Speaker 2: So we're always ranked among the five or six largest

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Speaker 2: in the United States.

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Speaker 1: That that I mean in this greater Cincinnati area.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we serve thirteen counties, five counties in Ohio and

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Speaker 2: eight in northern Kentucky.

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Speaker 1: Is there a reason there's so many that rely on

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Speaker 1: meals on wheels here? Is it just the outreach that

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Speaker 1: you engage in the awareness because you know, I think Chicago,

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Speaker 1: New York. Sure, there's a lot bigger cities out there,

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Speaker 1: there are, and you see a lot of cities.

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Speaker 2: I was looking, you know at Atlanta and Houston where

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Speaker 2: you know, they've gotten larger populations, but they've got multiple

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Speaker 2: organizations in those cities that are doing this work. We're

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Speaker 2: kind of the leading organization that's that's providing the services

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Speaker 2: that we're able to provide.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so kind of a monopoly, which in one respect

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Speaker 1: is a really good thing, but in another you're at capacity.

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Speaker 1: You can't help anybody else. So you are over Radcliffe Drivers,

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Speaker 1: Where you are now? Yep? Yep? Where are you moving to?

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Speaker 2: So we're heading east, heading off the west side a

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Speaker 2: little bit. We last April we publicly launched our Driving

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Speaker 2: into the Future campaign, which was a thirty million dollar

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Speaker 2: private fundraising campaign for our new facilities. Thanks to the

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Speaker 2: amazing generosity of this community, we've raised almost twenty five

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Speaker 2: million dollars towards the word.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all private dollars. Private. Oh, I love hearing that.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome.

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Speaker 2: We're we're very blessed here in Cincinnati to have the

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Speaker 2: philanthropic arm.

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Speaker 1: That we have. Yes, now it's just individuals or businesses.

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you are a tax free organization or

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Speaker 1: a tax exempt organization. Are you a five h one

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Speaker 1: to three CE organization? So this is a tax deductible

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Speaker 1: contribution out there. Absolutely a strong suggestion, given that we're

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Speaker 1: in the giving time of year, there's got to be

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Speaker 1: someone out there in the world, some business, some individual

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Speaker 1: that might be more than happy to donate to this

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Speaker 1: obviously in need organization meals on will. So we're going

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Speaker 1: to encourage him to do that. The facility, then we'll

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Speaker 1: be able to manage the one point two million that

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Speaker 1: you do. Now is it. Can you grow with a

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Speaker 1: new facility as well?

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Speaker 2: We absolutely can. So we're really excited to be moving

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Speaker 2: over to Columbia Township. The old John Nolan Ford from

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Speaker 2: many listeners who may have bought a car or two

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Speaker 2: from there, has sat empty for a couple of years,

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Speaker 2: and we were able to acquire that facility and We're

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Speaker 2: going to retrofit it from the ground up into a

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Speaker 2: really a state of the art facility that will allow

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Speaker 2: us to produce up to three million meals a year.

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Speaker 2: But beyond just the meals brand, we're also going to

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Speaker 2: have access to community rooms our volunteer operations, which I

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Speaker 2: do want to mention We've got over five thousand volunteers

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Speaker 2: a year that come in and really make the organization

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Speaker 2: come to life. They will have more resources, more space,

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Speaker 2: and more ability to make this thing happen.

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Speaker 1: Now I see on your website much more than a

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Speaker 1: meal dot or I'm gonna mentioned like nineteen more times.

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Speaker 1: So we're done here to get folks remembering it. You

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Speaker 1: do have a link for volunteering. What types of volunteers

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Speaker 1: are you hoping for? What are the ways in which

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Speaker 1: people can volunteer and get signed up to volunteer.

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Speaker 2: So it's everything from you know, girl Scouts will come

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Speaker 2: in and decorate birthday bags. It's one of the highlights

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Speaker 2: of our clients. They'll get birthday bag on their birthday

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Speaker 2: every year and yeah it is so sweet. But they'll

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Speaker 2: you know, help pack snack boxes in addition to the

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Speaker 2: meals we help to you know, stuff pantries every week

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Speaker 2: with kind of just some of the essentials cookies, crackers,

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Speaker 2: juice boxes, fruit cups, things like that. They can also

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Speaker 2: come in and pack pet food. I think a lot

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Speaker 2: of folks don't know that we have a pretty large

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Speaker 2: pet program.

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Speaker 1: When we do. We do.

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Speaker 2: We provide over thirty pounds of pet food per year

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Speaker 2: for all of our clients.

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Speaker 1: You know, never would have thought of that, because the

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Speaker 1: joy of having a come opinion when you are a senior,

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Speaker 1: it's like one of the best things you can do

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Speaker 1: is have a catter a dog in the house to

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Speaker 1: give you the love and attention, give you something to

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Speaker 1: do as a senior. Never thought about the reality because

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Speaker 1: I own a dog, and I know how expensive dog

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Speaker 1: food's gotten. She's Louise, it's gotten expensive. Yeah, it sure has.

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Speaker 2: And you nailed it. I mean, it's really it's about

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Speaker 2: being able to bride.

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Speaker 1: For the senior.

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Speaker 2: But we recognized how important that companionship is for their

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Speaker 2: quality of life. Yeah, so to be able to help

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Speaker 2: them maintain that, maintain it in their home and promote

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Speaker 2: that independent living, it's really important for us. Now what

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Speaker 2: about the drivers, So all of our drivers, our staff,

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Speaker 2: we're staff about one hundred and forty and all of

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Speaker 2: our drivers are staff drivers. They are not volunteers, and

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Speaker 2: that's important to us because it allows us to maintain

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Speaker 2: continuity with our seniors. Our seniors really develop a strong

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Speaker 2: relationship with their drivers. They know who's going to be there,

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Speaker 2: when they're going to get there, and in many ways,

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Speaker 2: our drivers become an extension of their family.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure. And then there's also the idea of them

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Speaker 1: being your employees, your background checks to make sure that

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Speaker 1: they're up to snuff on their ability to drive and

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Speaker 1: don't have a commercial driver's license from say California. Sorry,

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Speaker 1: I had to say that. Don't do not hold Mike

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Speaker 1: and Natalie responsible for the editorial comments from Brian Thomas

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Speaker 1: related to politics. As we talk about this important organization,

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Speaker 1: Meals on Wheels, we'll do one more segment, much more

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Speaker 1: than a meal Dot talk Station, perfect timing, Judge Tracker

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Speaker 1: Take forty nine fifty five KRC the talk station Joey

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Speaker 1: pez See Meals on Wheels, making it a wonderful world.

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Speaker 1: Always say when Joey sings that song on a Friday,

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Speaker 1: there's always something out there to look at and say,

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Speaker 1: it is a wonderful world. And I am sitting in

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Speaker 1: front of two people, Mike Cogan and Natalie cooking from

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Speaker 1: Meals on Wheels who are pro that helping out ten

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Speaker 1: thousand seniors cooking one point three million meals annually and

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Speaker 1: in a new space that allow them to expand to

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Speaker 1: three million meals annually. We're talking about volunteer work. You're

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Speaker 1: talking about your drivers that are on staff and off air.

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Speaker 1: You know you mentioned the pet food. What other service

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Speaker 1: you offer and help seniors get the pet food? I

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Speaker 1: wasn't thinking really out of the box. I'm thinking meals

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Speaker 1: on wheels. They deliver a meal and they wheel away.

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Speaker 1: Because these drivers are regularly and a constant presence in

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Speaker 1: these seniors' lives, they get to know them. As I

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Speaker 1: found out over the break, quite often they become a

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Speaker 1: temporary plumber or a can you fix this? Why you're here?

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Speaker 1: Kind of thing. So they are in the best possible position,

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Speaker 1: like a teacher looking out at the students each and

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Speaker 1: every day. They're in the best possible position to observe

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Speaker 1: whether or not something's going awry in that senior's world.

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Speaker 1: And I understand that you partner with the social Protective

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Speaker 1: Services so you can alert them if there's anything going on,

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Speaker 1: or you can investigate it. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So our drivers are all trained to spot something amiss,

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Speaker 3: whether that is perhaps a utility that isn't working, or

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Speaker 3: if our client is looks injured or looks ill or

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Speaker 3: looks a little bit different, or maybe something is off,

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Speaker 3: they're able to report that back to our team. We're

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Speaker 3: able to escalate it. So again what Mike was saying

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Speaker 3: about the continuity between our drivers and our clients, we

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Speaker 3: really deliver a wellness check whenever we drop off food.

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Speaker 1: Great. Well, since Patty Scott was on earlier, I think

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Speaker 1: you are ideally suited to maybe partner up with Heart

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Speaker 1: for Seniors and keep some of those amazing bandages in

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Speaker 1: those drivers cars. They could drop a box off any

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Speaker 1: of the seniors that have any wounds or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: These co peel on and off without tearing the skin,

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Speaker 1: without doing any wound. I mean, it's just they're wonderful.

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Speaker 1: So here I am trying to merge YouTube together to

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Speaker 1: continue to help the seniors out in the community. You

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Speaker 1: also off we were joking about this on the break

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Speaker 1: because my mom struggles with technology, how I even struggle

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Speaker 1: with technology and Mike you had mentioned you also offer

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Speaker 1: seniors financial or not only financial education, but help with

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Speaker 1: technological advancement. Sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, our digital literacy program, we're really able to put

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Speaker 2: technology into their hands and then teach them how to

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Speaker 2: use it. I think often, you know, through the pandemic,

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Speaker 2: we learned how important things like FaceTime we're to help

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Speaker 2: keep in touch. But you know, it's also important to know,

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Speaker 2: you know, when you leave a doctor's appointment, how to

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Speaker 2: log back into your mind chart accountant on staying you

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Speaker 2: do that when you find out, you let me know,

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Speaker 2: So I think just to be able to give them

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Speaker 2: all the resources that they have. Our protective services program,

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Speaker 2: we've got a team of licensed social workers that help

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Speaker 2: with over two hundred cases a year that help manage that.

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Speaker 1: So that's really great, No wonder you're so wildly successful

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Speaker 1: in the area. So anything else my listeners need to

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Speaker 1: know about, because I'm doing everything I can to get

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Speaker 1: them to adopt this your organization and again make a

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Speaker 1: contribution at much more than a meal dot org. Sure, thanks, Brian.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so, really we are unable to do what we

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Speaker 2: do without the support from the community, and right now

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Speaker 2: in the season of giving it as we approach the

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Speaker 2: end of the year. You know, any contributions and gifts

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Speaker 2: to our organization make a tremendous impact. One of my

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Speaker 2: favorite things that I get to do is when I

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Speaker 2: walk through the office and I see, you know, a

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Speaker 2: box that's being delivered to a senior, and I see

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Speaker 2: the name on that box.

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Speaker 1: That's one person.

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Speaker 2: That's one human whose life we're going to make better

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Speaker 2: that day by being there for them. So any support

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Speaker 2: to your support, the community support, we're tremendously grateful for it.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm grateful the fact that I know now more

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Speaker 1: about your organization. I really had some tremendous amount of

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Speaker 1: respect before you came in on what you're doing delivering

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Speaker 1: these meals, But now that I know everything else you do,

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Speaker 1: the Thomas Household will be making a financial contribution this

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Speaker 1: morning to your organization. I am already at the donation page.

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Speaker 1: You've made it very easy to make a donation, so

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Speaker 1: I assure you this morning you'll have a few more

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars in your pocket to help this help the

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Speaker 1: seniors and do the work that you're doing. I wish

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Speaker 1: all the up with the new facility. When do you

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Speaker 1: think the new facility will be open. Obviously, you've got

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Speaker 1: a little bit of work to do getting the kitchen

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Speaker 1: up and run.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to put some fresh pain on the walls,

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Speaker 2: but will hope to be in by the by the

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Speaker 2: end of twenty twenty six, and then there'll be a

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Speaker 2: transition period from a production standpoint, but by twenty.

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Speaker 1: Seven we should be up and going, so you'll still

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Speaker 1: be crowded up until the end of the next calendar

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Speaker 1: year a little bit, all right, But I wish you

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Speaker 1: all the luck in the world getting that accomplished, and

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Speaker 1: want to thank you on behalf of all my listeners

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Speaker 1: for what you have been doing for so many years.

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Speaker 1: And I'm glad my dad had a connection with the

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Speaker 1: prior Wesley group or that provided these services and kind

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Speaker 1: of gives me a warm feeling of my heart and

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Speaker 1: I think about my dad and how much I miss them.

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Speaker 1: So I'm glad that you're there. Thank you again one

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Speaker 1: more time. Did you guys get the website already? Did

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Speaker 1: you pay attention much more than a meal dot org right,

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Speaker 1: you know it, Get over there, help them out. It's

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Speaker 1: been a pleasure having you in. Feel great about this

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Speaker 1: holiday season knowing that you're out there and I wish

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Speaker 1: you all the best in your future. And with a

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Speaker 1: new space, you're going to be helping more and more people,

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Speaker 1: which is indeed glorious thing. Thank you, Thanks having Thanksgiving,

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Speaker 1: to both of your happy holidays down