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Show Students help with county's Meals on Wheels income people participate in the program. Oftentimes serving a nomebound person meals in their home makes the difference between be-tween being able to keep them in their home and environment or putting them in a nursing home. For both Thora and Grace, the contact with the deliverers is as important im-portant as the nutrition and food. It provides them with a safety network net-work and a person-to-person contact con-tact on a daily basis. If the volunteer volun-teer who is delivering the meal can't get an answer from within the house, they follow up contacting families and friends until the problem prob-lem is resolved. However, both women feel they are much better off nutritionally for getting the meals and oftentimes eat lunch leftovers left-overs for dinner. The cost of the meal is $1.50 donation at the cen ters and $1.75 donation for the nomebound deliveries. According to Barbara Anderson, manager of the food program at the Golden Years Center in Bountiful, the majority of the people who participate par-ticipate in the Meals on Wheels program are pleased with the results, re-sults, and thankful for its availability. availa-bility. Senior citizens are an extremely diversified group in terms of their needs and abilities to care for them-selves. them-selves. Generally, the elderly population of the future will have a longer life expectancy and better health than today's seniors. It's beneficial be-neficial that the Davis School Foods Service, in coordination with the Council on Aging can be one of the resources available to assist in meeting the needs of the older population. By KAY JARVIS . Davis School District Thora has beautiful, tender brown eyes and white hair. She's a small woman and has just celebrated cele-brated her 84th birthday. She re-. re-. ceived a card from President and Nancy Reagan the morning of her birthday and blushes with pride. In addition to the card, Thora's Home Health Care aide, Judy Bailey, has brought her a cola which is a special spe-cial treat that Judy and Thora share. Interspersed with drinks of cola are comical little comments and observations. When the cola brings up a burp, Thora covers her mouth with her hand and delicately says "The Return of a Swallow, by Iona Belch." Thora says she can pinch pennies so tight she can squeeze the chips out of a buffalo nickel. Grace is also 84 years old and living on a limited income. She's an alert, dignified, quiet lady with incredible in-credible blue eyes. Grace says her only social contacts are her daughter-in-law and her visits to her doctor. doc-tor. She learned to drive when she was 60 but hasn't been able to drive for two or three years due to her failing health. Grace and Thora have a lot in common, In addition to being homebound and surviving on a limited li-mited income, both are widows, both have little or no social contacts con-tacts outside their immediate families, fami-lies, and both are delivered lunch by the "Meals on Wheels" program prog-ram directed by the Davis County Council on Aging. The health and welfare of the aging ag-ing is reaching crisis proportions and is projected to get more so. In Davis County the population of adults age 60 and over grew 59 percent per-cent from 1980 to 1987, rising fastei than any county in the state. It is estimated that by the year 2000, the population in Davis County will double, but the population of the elderly will triple. There will be an increasingly larger number of poor and nearly poor elderly comprised primarily of the very old, women, minorities and those living alone. Not only now, but in the future the need for long-term care services is increasingly important. Meals on Wheels is one of the vital services offered to the home-bound home-bound and the meals are also served at the Senior Citizens centers. cen-ters. Carina Pascoe, Nutrition Director for the Davis Council on Aging, states that it isn't always what the person eats, but as important impor-tant is who they eat it with. Loneliness Loneli-ness in the elderly is devastating. The Senior Citizens Centers give them a place to interact socially. The meals are prepared by the school lunch staff at Davis, View-mont View-mont and Clearfield High schools, and like the school lunches for the students, it provides one-third of the current recommended dietary allowances for the elderly. The food is picked up by volunteers from the Senior Citizen centers and taken to the proper location, where it is distributed to the clients and served at the centers. Those participants parti-cipants needing a special diet, such as diabetic or low sodium, receive theirs from the Lake view or Humana Huma-na hospital's kitchen. In the month of August, approximately 2,440 meals were delivered to the home-bound home-bound in Davis County, and an additional 2,500 were served at the centers. It is a misnomer that nnlv Inu |