Best Practices | Food Production |
Costs/Funding
Submitted by
linda vogler on 01/25/2002
Friendship Trays was established and in good shape way before I came
on the scene. I do know that it costs about $10,000 to start up a
route. Each meal costs $5.34 with food, labor and so forth. We bill
each recipient $4.30 per meal and a handful actually are able to pay,
but of course, most are not. We have a kitchen staff which is
comprised of kitchen manager, lead cook, staff cook and the third
cook's position is the students of Community Culinary School of
Charlotte. Between classes, we hire a graduate from the last class who
then is paid to fill in until the next class is ready to cook. A
strong source of support for this type of ministry is the faith
community for finances and for volunteers. Having been around awhile,
Friendship Trays has a broad base of individual support, receives
grants
Submitted by
Jane KCCK on 06/25/2002 We
have been preparing and packaging Meals on Wheels since the first of
February. We deliver the meals to a central elderly program and their
drivers deliver to the homes. We charge Shepherds' Center $2.90 per
meal. About half of their recipients are covered by a government
subsidy; the others are self-pay. We have offered to provide some
meals free so people on a waiting list for subsidized pay will not go
hungry. I have to admit it is frustrating, because the Center wants us
to serve specialized meals for which we are not qualified to do. We
serve hot meals/cold bag Monday-Friday and frozen meals/cold bag for
the weekends. Each hot meal consists of a protein entree, a starch
side and a vegetable side. The cold bag contains a salad, bread,
dessert and milk or juice for those who can't drink milk. We serve a
fruit for dessert for diabetics and have to be very careful not to
have too many carbohydrates in their meals. We are also conscious of
the fat and sodium content. The packaging is very time consuming, but
is good experience for the students. Currently we are making 50-60
meals daily for MoW, but this could rise considerably if we do take on
some free meals. It is estimated that it costs about $1000+ a year for
each individual in the program. Since most of our food is donated, we
have only been able to calculate packaging costs. For us it is really
a break-even situation.
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