by Amy Hanley
Lisa Berkowitz
Lisa Berkowitz, Program Director for Santa Cruz County Meals on Wheels (MOW), a program of Community Bridges, has been serving Santa Cruz County seniors for 40 years. Under her watch, over eight million meals have been provided to seniors in need. Not only is that a vast number of meals, but Santa Cruz County seniors have never had to withstand a waiting list to receive services.
Lisa states, “We know how critical these meals are to keeping people independent in their homes, where they want to be.”
In 1979 Lisa left her job in the corporate sector and joined the Golden Age Nutrition Program, the predecessor to MOW, as the Food Service Director. When asked why working with seniors appealed to her, Lisa recalled hearing stories of seniors having to eat pet food prior to communities offering meal services to seniors.
“I had such great admiration for my grandparents. They were critical in leading their families to better places,” Lisa says with admiration in her voice.
By providing care for seniors she saw a way to honor her own grandparents and preserve the health and dignity of the senior community in Santa Cruz County. During Lisa’s time leading MOW she has been successful in, as she puts it, “being responsive and turning the box the other way to meet the need.”
In 1996, the Golden Age Nutrition Program became part of Meals on Wheels to better define its mission and capitalize on name recognition. By that time Lisa had also been able to convert all drivers to volunteers, without laying off any personnel. Simply through time and attrition she was able to save the program $200,000. She instituted the “Let’s do Lunch” campaign which delivered meals to volunteer drivers at their workplace and created delivery routes that people could do on their lunch break.
When asked about the changes that she has seen in her four decades in serving the senior population in Santa Cruz County, Lisa noted the rise in poverty and homelessness among seniors. “When I started there were no homeless seniors receiving meals. However, now 47% of seniors that receive meals at our Louden Nelson dining site are homeless and 61% of all our clients are below the Federal Poverty Level. Funding is not there to meet the need.”
In combination with the rising number of seniors in the county and the fact that federal and state funding for MOW remains at 1984- 85 levels, there is a deficit of 10,000 meals a year not being funded.
Lisa stresses that it is important to be an active ambassador in promoting the value of MOW at the state and Federal level to encourage increased funding. Additionally, she and her team work vigilantly to elevate the message about the challenges of aging in this county with such high cost of living.
What’s next for MOW? Two things are on Lisa’s radar. One, additional volunteer outreach. Some MOW clients have indicated that they need more contact than others. Lisa would like to institute a program where MOW volunteers reach out via phone or in-person between deliveries to check-in and provide emotional support.
In order to make this a reality, funding is needed for a volunteer coordinator to recruit, train, and monitor the volunteers. Secondly, Lisa’s vision is to have a new home for MOW that will allow for efficiencies of scale and expansion of services. The ability to stay at the Live Oak Senior Center, that currently houses the MOW offices, kitchen, and distribution facility, is uncertain.
Additionally, for the first time in six years, MOW is operating at a deficit due to increased utilization and costs and static funding. Despite these current challenges, Lisa has a positive attitude about the future. She believes that with the backing of the Santa Cruz community and its leaders, innovation and out of the box solutions will be discovered.
“No matter the situation we will always get the meals out the door to those who need them, when they need them.”
In honor of Lisa’s 40 years of service to MOW, Community Bridges is requesting community support to reduce the $10,000 budget deficit by March 31. This will provide 4,000 meals to local seniors!
Donations can be made at https://communitybridges.org/donate/ or via mail to Meals on Wheels, a Program of Community Bridges at 519 Main Street, Watsonville, Ca. 95076.
•••
For more information about Community Bridges services please visit www.communitybridges.org or email info@cbridges.org.