What a great community effort again this year - bringing gifts and kindness to Seniors & home bound individuals in Kelowna and West Kelowna.

Initiated a number of years ago by Home Instead – Seniors Care, this program continues to bring smiles and good cheer to Seniors and homebound individuals in our Community. Each year two months before Christmas, Home Instead has placed a tree in London Drugs Kelowna with the first names (provided by Meals on Wheels & others) & suggested gifts on paper ornaments.

These are available for members of the public to take to buy gifts for the names on the paper ornament. The gifts are gathered by Home Instead & placed in gift bags which are then distributed by Meals on Wheels Volunteers.

It is a real joy to see the looks of surprise and appreciation on the faces of the recipients.

What a beautiful community program!

102-year-old given grant to receive nutritious meals at a reasonable price.

Kelowna - Bertha Smith looks forward to Monday and Friday visits from a Meals on Wheels volunteer, and it's not just for the hot meals.

"I don't do hardly any cooking now," the 102-year-old Kelowna senior admitted this week as she received a special visit from volunteer co-ordinator Marion Bremner.

Bremner dropped in with Kiwanis High Noon president John Ferrol and Kelowna Kelowna Princess Jenna Chapman, the youngest volunteer, to introduce them to a long-time client.

Christmas is a great time to reflect and count our blessings. We have just been reminded of the tremendous benefit our community enjoys through the selfless giving of our volunteers as we celebrate Volunteer Day on Tuesday. What better gift can there be than the gift of time and caring?

In spite of the recent bitterly cold temperatures and hazardous driving conditions, our Meals on Wheels and Dinners @ Home volunteers have not missed a single delivery.

"Neither rain, nor sleet nor snow..." prevent regular delivery for those so dependent upon our service. Our wonderful, kind, friendly , patient and dependable volunteers deliver Meals on Wheels six days a week, 52 weeks a year.

A bunch of non-profit groups and businesses have teamed up help needy and overlooked seniors during the holidays.

The program runs until Dec. 16 and is called Be a Santa to a Senior.

Some non-profit have identified financially needy and lonely seniors in Kelowna, and their first names appear on ornaments along with a gift request on the Christmas tree at London Drugs.

Shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy the item and leave it at the store with the ornament attached.

The Meals on Wheels clients in Kelowna are staying put.

None have chosen to quit the service and move to a new at-home meal delivery program offered by the Interior Health Authority.

"They've been very supportive in saying they want to stay with us," Meals on Wheels administrator Marion Bremner said Friday.

"Our volunteers don't just bring affordable and nutritious meals to people. They also provide an important social contact."

Volunteers and directors of Kelowna Meals on Wheels say it's business as usual despite losing a contract with Interior Health.

They plan to keep delivering meals to about 125 seniors and invalids each week even though IH will cut its ties with the organization on April 1.

"We're disappointed and distressed with the decision IH has taken, but we're going to continue to exist, as we have for 37 years." Marion Bremner of Meals on Wheels said Friday.

Meals on Wheels has an annual budget of $130,000, $35,000 of which was provided by Interior Health. The Kiwanis Club gives $6,000 a year, and the rest is covered by clients, who pay $5 for a hot meal or $6 for a frozen one.

The gold embossed flowery card reads:

Dear Valentine,

I hope you like cookies. I know I do. I hope you get well soon and feel happiness in your life.

You can enjoy your life if you mush on and smile. I made these cookies especially for you. My Mom and I made them. One day your dreams will come true and love will come in your life.

With best wishes,

Cora, (age 8)

Words of encouragement flow from Black Mountain elementary school this week as the next generation learn a little social responsibility with some sugary treats.

Two classes of Grade 1 and 2 students spent Wednesday morning sealing baggies of cookies and special Valentines cards for the Meals on Wheels program. hoping their thoughtful gestures warm the hearts of elderly, less mobile Kelowna residents.

Santa is always working overtime during the holiday season, but he'll be getting extra help from some friends at Meals on Wheels, Seniors Outreach and Home Instead.

This is the second year that the groups have teamed up to bring "Santa to a Senior" around for the holidays.

With the help of London Drugs in Kelowna and Your Dollar Store with More, seniors in and around Kelowna will receive wrapped gifts with their regular order of a hot meal.

A recent Screening and Intervention Study conducted for the North Okanagan Health Region showed that 59% of (elderly) clients surveyed were found to be at a nutritional risk. Research has also shown that nutritional risk is the best single predictor of the number of a) physician visits, b) hospital emergency room visits, and c) whether or not the individual has been hospitalized in the previous year. It is a causative factor in between 40% adn 59% of hospital admissions in persons aged seventy plus.

In plain English, this means that 59% of seniors who have visited their doctor, or were admitted to an emergency ward, or have been hospital patients last year, are undernourished. The conclusion is that undernourished people are much more prone to illness than those who eat their three square meals a day. Indeed, one wonders why this should surprise anyone.