For the 42^nd year our program has successfully planned, prepared and delivered meals to our neighbors in need. This year we provided 190,000 nourishing meals to more than 800 homebound seniors, people with disabilities, people nutritionally at-risk, and those recovering from illness or accident. It took a team of dedicated employees, board members, food service and delivery volunteers, and contributors to get the job done. As one of our dedicated volunteers who recently passed away said, " we got the beans out on the street".

In 2002, we are poised to do even more. We are focused to reach even more people in need. This year, look in the Carousel Movie Theaters 1 through 4 for our meals service advertisement. We plan to create bi-lingual public service announcements and build stronger relationships with community service organizations. We also ask that you pass the word that home delivered meals are available to anyone in need within our service area.

We will continue to aggressively recruit more volunteers to fill our current needs and future needs. For every delivery route, we need ten delivery volunteers per week. So we will continue to get the word out through the media and in whatever ways we can for volunteers. By the way, we are so grateful those of you who volunteer to package, deliver and help in other ways (see the volunteer list in this newsletter).

We must continue to raise money to balance our budget and assure that we can feed people for years to come. We will continue our letter campaign. We are excited to be a part of the Syracuse Auto Dealer’s Charity Preview Event. We are planning a signature event of our own. We are applying for United Way funds for the first time (you can still designate a donation to us through the United Way should you choose). We will do planned giving workshops for those of you interested. We will continue to write grants to subsidize meal costs. All of these efforts will keep meal cost as low as possible. We thank all our contributors (see the contributors list in this newsletter). Your support is so important in the efforts to help our community.

We must meet another year of challenges because so many people depend on Meals on Wheels. I know that together we can meet those challenges. I look forward to working along side you this year.