Empty chairs, growing need: Burke's Meals on Wheels waitlist climbs to more than 500 names

While a handful of seniors gathered for Bingo and lunch Wednesday morning, hundreds of others remained on a waitlist for meals delivered to their homes.

Classy Seniors participants sat spaced apart at four tables pushed together on Wednesday morning, marking their Bingo boards as a volunteer called out letters and numbers. Senior Services Nutrition Coordinator Lana Lowder looked on from the sidelines, filling in for organizer Sandra Lowman.

Tom Rice called Bingo on the last round of the day and grabbed a prize from a table against the wall before sitting down with his Styrofoam cup of coffee.

Rice attends Classy Seniors in Valdese every day he is able. He said he has been going for seven or eight years.

“I started … because I had just gotten divorced, and my ex-wife was a great cook,” Rice said. “It was publicized in my church newsletter that free lunch was available for anyone who was in my situation, living by themselves and not a good cook.”

Classy Seniors operates Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. Participants are served a warm lunch, and programming includes Bingo, puzzles, lessons on nutrition, blood pressure checks, walking, bowling, stretching, and Tai Chi.

Ginger Clement, who has been part of the group for 14 years, remembers a time when there were up to 15 people. Now, there is a core group of six people.

Some of the old members died, Rice said. Clement added that many people just prefer staying home these days.

“I wish there were more people coming,” Rice said. “I don’t know the answer to recruitment, but this is a service that’s available … and why more people don’t show up and take advantage of it, I don’t know.”

About 22% of Burke’s residents are 65 or older, according to Census data from 2025. Children 18 and younger are only 18% of the population.

Lowder said that often, when she reaches out to senior apartment complexes, most people choose not to participate because they want home-delivered meals.

Senior Services Director Roxanne Powell said that, since COVID, there has been a higher demand for Meals on Wheels services, with 77 new applications between January and mid-May and a waitlist of 557.

Meals on Wheels delivers warm meals to about 112 Burke County seniors’ doorsteps each week from Monday to Friday. That is all the program currently has the capacity for.

The biggest challenge tied to the waitlist is recruiting and retaining enough volunteers, Powell said.

Although funding is another small component, County Manager Brian Epley said that, at this point, “it’s more about sustained volunteer time than it is about money.”

Epley said Meals on Wheels is primarily funded by a federal grant of $152,594. The county also contributes $50,000, for a total of $202,594.

The county was able to start contributing that money in about 2024, Epley said, which helped reduce the waitlist.

“Even if we had more money to add a (new) route, it takes 12 to 15 volunteers,” Epley said. “It has to be a long-term commitment to meal delivery, and then we have to figure out a way to stage the meals because they can’t go below 160 degrees (Fahrenheit).”

Powell said that by volunteering just a couple of hours each week, or even each month, “you can deliver more than just nutritious meals; you open the door to meeting neighbors, building meaningful connections in your community, and helping combat loneliness for our seniors.”

Pam Lowdermilk, a Meals on Wheels volunteer, said not only are meals being delivered, but it’s “eyes on the seniors.”

Lowdermilk said that, just that morning, she had helped one of the people she delivers to contact someone that could drive him to a Spectrum location because his landline had stopped working.

Some volunteers have had to call 911 for health emergencies, Lowdermilk said.

“If they don’t answer the door, then you know you have their number, so you can call them, and hopefully somebody answers,” Lowdermilk said. “If they don’t, then you worry. Especially if it’s one of those that is always there.”

Powell said, “At a time when people are craving connection, Meals on Wheels brings neighbors together who might never have met, leaving both feeling less alone because it’s about much more than delivering meals.”