Sugar Land resident Elsie Borowski, right, gets a Fort Bend Seniors Meals on Wheels delivery from volunteer Jan Carboni. About 600 elderly residents in Fort Bend and Waller counties get hot lunches delivered daily through the program. Carboni and her husband deliver every Wednesday. Dave Schafer photoThe TV dinner-size trays of dirty rice, mixed vegetables and okra with a side roll, banana and milk will be the only real meal Tom and Cecilia Jones get. If hunger strikes later, maybe he’ll fry up some bacon or scramble eggs.

The Sugar Land residents depend on the daily deliveries from Fort Bend Seniors Meals on Wheels to give them the sustenance and nutrients they need.

"Our biggest meal is what she brings us," Tom Jones, 86, said.

His thin frame rests in a metal wheelchair, his left foot gone above the ankle, a casualty of gangrene that set in because of diabetes.

"That’s why Meals on Wheels is so important to us. And these people are so good to us," he said.

The Joneses are just two of more than 600 seniors throughout Fort Bend and Waller counties who receive meals each day from Fort Bend Seniors.

The organization, which also provides meals at six congregate centers for mobile seniors, is dedicated to helping elderly residents maintain their independence by providing them with in-home services.

The meals, by taking away the need for these elderly residents to cook — thereby reducing the chance of fire or them harming themselves — helps them maintain their dependence.

Nearly all meal recipients live on a fixed income, and most live below the poverty line, said Manuela Arroyos, Fort Bend Seniors chief executive officer.

To be eligible, residents must be at least 60 years old, have no one else to prepare meals and not be able to obtain food or cook for themselves. A case manager assesses each recipient before deliveries start.

By easing the need for those residents to spend money on food, the program also allows them to pay for other essentials, like prescription drugs or their electric bill.

"The senior citizens look to us to help supplement their income," Arroyos said.

Giving strength and friendship

Mary Foy has lost 80 pounds in the two years since her son died. Her husband had died a year before that, so she’s all alone.

Diabetes causes her vision to blur, so she can’t cook. She rarely has an appetite, anyway.

The Meals on Wheels deliveries force her to eat, she said.

"The meals they provide give me strength," she said.

Menus are prepared by a dietitian and the food bought from Valley Food Service in Houston, Arroyos said. The meals are low in sodium and calories, and Valley makes special meals for diabetics. The meals have at least a third of the recommended daily allowance of nutrients.

"That meal will maintain them until the next day, even if they don’t eat anything else," Arroyos said.

Each meal costs $3.30.

In Fort Bend County, there is one distribution center and six congregate centers where workers and volunteers pick up food. Each meal has to be delivered within four hours of being cooked.

Starting this year, Fort Bend Seniors is providing frozen meals for the weekends to those residents who can heat them up.

The volunteers, about 200 in all, drive the program, Arroyos said.

They ask about the seniors’ well-being and build a relationship with them, something these frequently isolated people need.

"It gets us out of the house and we’re helping people who need the help more than we do. We enjoy it," said Fred Carboni, 69, who drives his wife, Jan, around the neighborhoods surrounding the Imperial Sugar plant each Wednesday.

Carboni has prostate cancer, but he’s determined to do this route until he can’t anymore.

"We want to give back," he said.

"It’s scary that there are people here, in our own neighborhood, who are going hungry," said Jan Carboni, 68.

One of their stops is in Covington Woods, where they live.

"Bye bye, I love you," one woman tells Jan Carboni after she puts the food on a desk in the woman’s foyer.

Giving back

"This is a way to give back to senior citizens who built this community," Arroyos said. "They’re not asking for anything, and sometimes we have to convince them to take the food. We have to make them understand that they’re just getting what they deserve."

But the program is only reaching a small portion of the population who needs the services, Arroyos said.

Fort Bend Seniors gets more requests every year. This year, it will give out more than 230,000 meals, according to Arroyos. The goal next year is to give out 260,000.

Because of a grant they got in May, FBS increased its total budget to $1.9 million this year.

KIDS MEALS

Houston-based Kids Meals is exploring expanding into Fort Bend County in the spring. The organization, which provides lunches for impoverished preschoolers, is studying where its services are needed, focusing on Sugar Land, Missouri City and Kendleton.

"I’m a grandma on a mission," said executive associate director Ruth Burrell. "I really want to end hunger among children in Houston, Harris County and Fort Bend County. And I think we can do it."

WANT TO HELP?

Fort Bend Seniors relies on donations to supplement the funds it gets from the Houston-Galveston Area Council on Aging, the Texas Department of Human Services Community Development, the United Way, commissioners courts and fundraisers.

To donate or volunteer to help feed home-bound seniors, or to inquire about receiving a free daily hot meal, contact Fort Bend Seniors at 281-633-7049.