A weekend diary that puts the Meals on Wheels funding figures beside the Lunchtime Poetry and Jazz Series and asks which one deserves a warm plate
Lunch and Verse: What Texas, South Carolina and Miami Can Teach a Twenty-Year-Old Driver About Feeding Seniors and Feeding the Soul
A weekend diary that puts the Meals on Wheels funding figures beside the Lunchtime Poetry and Jazz Series and asks which one deserves a warm plate
By Lotte Heidenreich, poet and Meals on Wheels volunteer, Florida
Saturday, Noon, Kitchen Table
Dear diary, I have two pages open on my laptop. One is the Meals on Wheels America funding story. The other is the Miami-Dade Poet Laureate page. They have nothing in common except that both are about feeding people, one the body and one the head.
I do not intend to rank them. I intend to hold them side by side, like two plates.
Plate One
The Meals on Wheels story says, as I noted earlier, that about 46,000 older adults are on waitlists and that one provider in Texas saw its daily meal count drop from 950 to 600 because funding lagged behind costs. A South Carolina provider reports a shortfall of 40,000 dollars because the state pays less per meal than it costs to make.
These are the group’s examples, in a story dated September 2025. They illustrate the problem, and I cannot tell you how the problem looks today.
Plate Two
The Miami-Dade page lists the Lunchtime Poetry and Jazz Series at the Main Library, a program created and hosted by Nicole Tallman. The page does not say how many attend, or how much the series costs, or whether it serves lunch. I note that the name suggests a pairing of midday and verse, and I like it.
A series like this is a small thing in a big county, and small things in big counties are the ones that get cut first.
What They Share
Both depend on people turning up. A driver turns up at a door. A poet turns up at a podium. Both are volunteers or near-volunteers in a system that does not always pay for the thing it values.
I am not saying poetry is a meal. I am saying that a sentence read aloud to a stranger is, in its quiet way, a delivery.
What They Do Not Share
Poetry will not stop a waitlist. A poem will not make a six-month wait shorter. The story is clear that the waiting is a funding problem, and the answer it asks for is money for the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program. I do not wish to imply that verse can replace that.
I wish only to say that a person on a waitlist for lunch is also a person who has opinions about weather, grandchildren and television. They deserve both plates.
My Plan
On my route I will leave a line of poetry in each cooler bag, on a card. I will ask permission first. The program has rules and I will follow them. If the answer is no, I will keep the card in my pocket for another day.
If you want to try this in your own county, ask your program coordinator before you do anything. A kind idea can still break a rule.
Bedtime Reading
Tonight I will read a poem about bread. I will think of the waitlists. I will not write a poem about the waitlists, because a poem should not pretend to be a policy.
Goodnight, diary. Two plates.
Questions From the Porch
Neighbour one: should the government fund poetry or lunch? I said that is not the question. Neighbour two: is lunch more important? I said hunger is not a matter of opinion, and I do not intend to argue for the poem against the plate. Neighbour three: can I have a poem? I wrote one on a napkin and gave it to her.
She put it in her bag. I regard that as a review.
A Line to Take Away
If you have to take one thing from this entry, take the following: ask your local Meals on Wheels what it needs, and ask your local library what it has on at lunchtime. Both will have an answer. Neither will be a mystery, and both will be glad of the question.
Porch Reading
Between delivery stops I read the comic papers, because the car park is hot and the radio is bad. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/