Every year our clients receive gifts from members of our community, but this year was extra special. Every one of our 450 clients received at least one gift.

This generous support means so much to our homebound clients. Thanks so much to those on the following list for bringing holiday cheer.

And, thank you so much to our volunteers who went above and beyond delivering gifts as well as providing their own gifts to clients in addition to meals, groceries, pet food and litter, soups and frozen weekend packs.

Happy holidays!

Donated Gifts for Clients 2016

Air Products Operation Santa Claus—45 large gifts for clients

Allentown Garden Club—holiday arrangements in mugs for every client

Anonymous crocheted lap blankets

Crazy Quilters—handmade placemats

Caregivers of America— set up giving trees throughout the community and community members donated gifts

LCTI – HOSA Club

Ten Thousand Villages—customers donated ornaments

GS Cadette Troop 6232—decorated bags to wrap gifts

3900 Hamilton St Shopping Center—asked customers to donate items

Home Instead—set up giving trees throughout the community and community members donated gifts

Lehigh Valley Health Network employees—50 table-top trees with gifts

Meals on Wheels Volunteers

A couple of Meals on Wheels Clients sent homemade ornaments & crafts for other clients

Alyssa Thomas and Larry Peck

Union UCC church

Salisbury Elementary School First Graders

Thanks to our sponsors, guests and supporters, the 16th Annual Bountiful Bowl was our most successful ever—raising $55,000. The money raised will subsidize at least 13,000 meals for our homebound clients.

250 guests enjoyed a wonderful evening of camaraderie, great food prepared by Sodexo Dining Services, an open bar and musical entertainment by Roger Latzgo in a beautiful setting at DeSales University. The evening included a silent auction of handcrafted bowls and other treasures as well as gift baskets and gift certificates; libation raffle, and live auction with a chef event, sporting events, condo vacation, wine tasting, and flowers for every season.
This year Mary Pat Stark was honored as the recipient of the Second Annual Bob Wood Legacy Award. This award was created by Bob’s family and Meals on Wheels to be given to someone who exemplifies Bob’s generosity of spirit and care for his community, especially in the area of ensuring that members of our community do not suffer from hunger.
Bob was instrumental in the creation of the Meals on Wheels program and remembered the beginning of the program as an example of how Lehigh County leaders and citizens put into place a program that would ensure that the people who needed home-delivered meals could have full lives. “The program wasn’t just for convenience, but instead helped people to stay in their own homes and be independent.” The Meals on Wheels program, Bob said, “is an example of institutional commitment leveraged by people who want to make a difference.”
Mary Pat Stark of Emmaus, PA is the mother of 4, a grandmother of 7, a wife of one and friend to many, many people. She has room for all of them in her heart and her life, but still finds time for volunteering. Fortunately, Meals on Wheels has been the recipient of her big heart, creative mind, infectious laugh and engaging personality.
Mary Pat has been volunteering with Meals on Wheels since March, 2001. She has driven on Route 21 since she started; currently on the first, third and fifth Wednesdays of each month. This is the Agency’s longest route, taking up to 2.5 hours. She’s logged 6,416 miles and 1,090 hours delivering about 13,000 meals. In addition, she served on the Meals on Wheels Board for 4 years.
She is the one the agency calls when they need to create a fun volunteer recognition or anniversary event or come up with volunteer recruitment ideas. She never fails to come up with something new and fun and takes everyone around her along for the ride. Mary Pat is the one with the ideas, the deals and attention to all the details.
Meals on Wheels clients, volunteers and staff truly benefit from all of her generosity and spirit.

Thank you to all the members of our community who donated money or items for this event as well as the following:
The Bountiful Bowl Committee: Brooke Griffiths & Cindy Merrit, Co-Chairs, Connie Archer, Pat Beldon, Audrey Fronheiser; Pamela Koons-Hartnett, Pam Lackman, Rosemarie Lamaestra, Mary Anne Johnson, Sue McCann, Mary Pat Stark and Norma Visnar.
Event volunteers: Pat Blahnik, Jane Crowther, Karen Haberern, Marilyn Howard, Grace Reed, Joy Buckley Reed, Lisa Russo and Audrey Wallace
Volunteer photographer: John Hughes
Volunteer auctioneer: Ray Starner
Major Sponsors:
Media: ASR Media Productions and The Morning Call
Bountiful Harvest: Aesculap, Inc.; Cross America Partners; People First FCU; Top Star; and The Topper Family
Basket of Plenty: Pat & Sandy Beldon; BB&T; Buckno Lisicky & Co.; Burkholder’s HVAC; HCSC Enterprises, Inc.; The Hartford; Liberty Property Trust; Doug & Mary Anne Johnson; The Pidcock Company; In Honor of Mary Pat Stark; Talen Energy; St. Luke’s Physician Group; and Valley Extrusions
Cornucopia: Bradley Pulverizer Company; Fellowship Community; Health Network Laboratories; LVHN Population Health; Olympus; PPL; Law Office of Michael Santanasto; Wells Fargo Bank Regional Office; and Working Dog Press

Exciting news! For the ninth year running, the Meals on Wheels network is participating in the Subaru Share the Love Event. Over for the past eight years, Subaru has donated nearly $10 million to Meals on Wheels—that’s the equivalent of more than 1.4 million meals to seniors across the country!

Why does Subaru support Meals on Wheels? Too many seniors are struggling to stay independent and healthy. One in four seniors lives alone in isolation and one in six seniors might not know from where their next meal is coming. This is simply unacceptable, which is why Organization Name provides the nutritious meals, friendly visits and safety checks to the seniors of area. This vital support keeps seniors in their own homes, where they want to be.

We’re incredibly grateful to Subaru and its retailers for supporting our organization and the seniors we serve. With that in mind, we thought you might want to learn a little bit more about the Share the Love Event.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

This November 17, 2020 through January 3, 2017, for every new Subaru vehicle leased or sold, Subaru will donate $250 to the customer’s choice of participating charities. Meals on Wheels America is one of four national participating charities, and has been since the inception of the event. And through this campaign, as a Member of Meals on Wheels America, Organization Name will receive a share of the revenue earned in State.

You might not be in the market to purchase a new car, but if you are—please look into the Share the Love Event to learn more. If you’re not shopping for a new vehicle, you can still help by spreading the word to your family and friends. A few quick and easy ways to do that:

- Share this blog post/article!
- Share our posts about Share the Love on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mealsonwheelslehighcounty/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MOWLehighCounty/

And remember- this holiday season, you can ensure our senior neighbors are not forgotten when you buy or lease a new Subaru and select Meals on Wheels America as your charity of choice.

Our Highmark Walk Raised $20k! We are so thrilled with the outcome and support. Thank you.