Meals on Wheels Chicago Celebrity Chef Ball

Meals on Wheels Chicago brings home delivered meals to the city’s seniors for as little as a $2.00 donation.  Those caring for seniors know how valuable this service is for a senior living alone.  In addition, the meal delivery program delivers the added value of having a person who is checking on the senior each day the meals are delivered.

In October, Chicago area chefs will help host the Celebrity Chef Ball to raise money for Chicago’s Meals on Wheels program.  You can purchase tickets or volunteer to help support this community program for Chicago’s seniors and disabled.

Celebrity Chef Ball in Chicago, Illinois

Date:  Friday, October 14, 2011

Time:  The Chef’s Table ($325 Tickets)  6:00 pm – 12:30 a.m.

           Chef Tasting Party, 8:00 pm – 12:  30 a.m.

Place:  Macy’s State Street, 111 N. State Street, downtown Chicago, Illinois

Buy Your Tickets to Celebrity Chef Ball for Meals on Wheels Chicago

In 1987, Meals on Wheels Chicago, represented by community leaders and concerned citizens, partnered with its primary community affiliate, the City of Chicago, to address the unmet nutritional needs of the city’s homebound elderly and individuals with disabilities.

The organization discovered there was a shortage of meal service for holidays, short-term or emergency meals, and weekend delivery.  Solving this problem, Meals on Wheels Chicago committed to raising funds through special events, private funding, corporate partnerships and individual contributions that would go towards a supplemental food delivery program for seniors over the age of 60 and to a program that increases accessibility in homes of individuals with disabilities.

In partnership with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, Senior Services Area Agency on Aging and the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Meals on Wheels Chicago has raised millions of dollars to provide nutritional meals, delivered to seniors and disabled Chicagoans to assist them to maintain dignity and independence.

To keep providing the meal program, which delivers home meals which includes two meals per day, five days a week to more than 8,000 homebound seniors, the Celebrity Chef Ball will raise money while also celebrating the services of Meals on Wheels.

The Chicago Meals on Wheels programs offers homebound seniors consistent nutrition, free from service disruption, and any unforeseen problems that prolonged isolation can impose on the elderly in the absence of family, friends, or neighbors.  The delivery drivers are often the first to notice changes in the senior’s health and wellbeing.  If there is a noted change in their mental or physical health, the driver will report this immediately to either police or paramedics or to the assigned case manager who will respond appropriately.  This daily interaction is considered to be one of the city of Chicago’s most cost-effective preventative social services.

Meals on Wheels also helps with home repair needs through their Home Modification Program which provides financial assistance to qualifying individuals with disabilities for structural alterations that increase the accessibility of their homes or apartments. Typical alterations include kitchen and bathroom modifications and the addition of interior and exterior lifts and ramps. Modifications are limited to a maximum of $10,000 per project and are performed by licensed, insured and experienced home remodeling companies.

The 2011 Celebrity Chef Ball will be held on the 9^th floor of Macy’s on State Street and will feature 60 to 70 top chefs and mixologists from throughout Chicago and around the country.

Learn about programs in your area for seniors and find out about senior caregiving job opportunities as the need for professional caregivers continue to grow, in order to keep up with the large aging population with the baby boomer generation beginning to retire.