The snow and ice are still making it difficult for some older adults to get around Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
But thanks to the Meals on Wheels program at the Bay Ridge Center, homebound residents do not go without something to eat.<\/p>\n
Stephen Bonal and Angel Pabon were two of 12 drivers delivering hot and cold meals on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for us, [homebound residents] may not be getting a nutritious meal,\u201d said Bonal.<\/p>\n
The program delivers 600 meals every day to older adults in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Bath Beach and Coney Island.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the recent storm, they also provided \u201cstorm boxes\u201d as emergency kits.<\/p>\n
The funding for the program is thanks to the city\u2019s Department for the Aging.<\/p>\n
But Meals on Wheels is about more than delivering a dish; it serves as a quick, face-to-face wellness check between the homebound resident and the driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get to see someone or get to conversate, even if it\u2019s only a minute conversation or two-minute conversation,\u201d said Pabon.<\/p>\n
Pabon said that\u2019s important, since he may be the only person residents see.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them don\u2019t have any family, and the wellness check is a big deal,\u201d said Pabon. \u201cIt\u2019s a really big deal to have someone come every day to your home to make sure that you\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents told News 12 that they appreciate the drivers because they can\u2019t make it out themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t go out, no,\u201d said Despina Elisson, a homebound resident. \u201cI can\u2019t walk no more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can look out and see what they have to go through [with the snow and ice],\u201d said Maryann Von Holten. \u201cBut [the drivers are] great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The snow and ice are still making it difficult for some older adults to get around Brooklyn. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[7727,98,100,99,40387,48977,51778,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-117315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-bay-ridge","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-cold-weather","13":"tag-extreme-cold","14":"tag-meals-on-wheels","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}