Grants boost DuPage Meals on Wheels

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Updated: November 16, 2011 1:34AM

The DuPage Senior Citizens Council recently received a trio of grants that will help keep its Meals on Wheels service going.

The gifts included the $30,000 top prize in the Spirit of Volunteerism contest, $1,000 from the DuPage Community Foundation — one of 25 awards of that amount the philanthropy gave this year in celebration of its 25 years in local charity — and a $5,000 grant provided under the DCF’s annual discretionary cycle.

“Without (the awards), services would have to be curtailed because of the economy and because of the (budget problems of) the state of Illinois,” said Marylin Krolak, the DSCC’s executive director.

The volunteerism nod, funded by an anonymous benefactor, was particularly sweet. Part of the Volapalooza event celebrated last month at College of DuPage, the award drew 65 applicants, of which DSCC received the highest score.

Krolak said a stranger approached her at the volunteerism event.

“He came up and shook my hand and said, ‘How do you do? I’m Mr. Anonymous,’’ she said. “I asked if I could have his name and he said, ‘No, I’m anonymous.’”

The money will be especially helpful, she said, in meeting the organization’s expenses in a time of municipal funding cuts and heightened regulations.

“It cannot come at a better time,” Krolak said. “We could see the handwriting on the wall, and so we have been tightening up and are prepared to do what we need to do to maintain services at their current level ... And it’s the hottest ticket in town, because the senior population is just going to continue to grow.”

Established in 1975, the council provides home-delivered meals and a community dining program for seniors that is offered in two Naperville locations and a half-dozen others throughout DuPage. Krolak said 3,400 to 3,700 county seniors with low incomes receive help from the council each year.

The DSCC is different from other Meals on Wheels providers, she said, in part because it has implemented a well-being check program. When they drop by with meals, volunteers also have a look around “just to note anything that is out of the ordinary.” Initially done in 2004 as an emergency follow-up service, the checks this year have been formalized with structured record keeping.

“It is one that has saved lives,” said Krolak, who hopes to entice foundation support for the preventive measure. “There are a lot of folks that may have their parent well taken care of for their daily needs, but they sure would like to have someone to look in on them.”