That’s reason to celebrate, Executive Director Barrie Yochim told volunteers and supporters in a letter sent this month.

“Our founders had the vision 50 years ago to help provide nutrition services in our community,” he said. “That vision helped set the plan that we now follow today.”

The local Meals on Wheels was formally organized in April 1969 during a luncheon at WCA Hospital. Rolland Taft was elected the group’s first board president.

When established, the program was located at the Senior Citizen Center on East Fourth Street and provided two noon meals — one hot and one cold — five days a week to people who qualified for the program. Recipients, including senior citizens and others unable to prepare their own meals, paid for the service on a weekly basis.

Barrie Yochim pictured looking over meals set to be delivered Friday. The Meals on Wheels of the Jamestown Area delivered its first meal on July 21, 1969. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

The first meals were delivered July 21, 1969, by volunteers from the First Presbyterian Church. Food was prepared by Clair’s Dinerette on East Second Street. Other volunteers and organizations assisted early on, including members from Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Concordia Lutheran Church and Buffalo Street United Methodist Church, as well as students from Jamestown High School.

Today, Yochim said about 375 meals are delivered daily to area residents. Another 100 meals go to various senior groups or gatherings.

A small staff arrives each morning around 6:30 a.m. to a kitchen area at Jones Memorial Health Center, known as the former Jamestown General Hospital where the Jamestown Meals on Wheels also set up shop in the early 1970s.

Around 8 a.m. during the weekday, a small army of volunteers pick up the prepared meals and deliver them to the group’s distribution area. North county residents are served by Dunkirk-Fredonia Meals on Wheels.

An article in the July 9, 1969, edition of The Post-Journal read: “Meals on Wheels had its beginning in England in World War II and was started in this country in Philadelphia, Pa. It has spread to many communities where it is proving a definite help in keeping people in their homes as long as possible without moving them to a nursing home or some other institution.”

In its earliest days, meals were served to just three “subscribers.” Weeks later, the number of people using the program grew to 11 in the Jamestown area, newspaper reports said at the time. By October 1969, John Alley, executive director of the Jamestown Meals on Wheels, said 19 subscribers were receiving meals.

“Mr. Alley said that this was a slow, yet steady growth and that the number will substantially increase as the cold weather arrives,” a 1969 article in The Post-Journal said.

At present, each meal — which are planned well in advance — is served cold to residents; up until around 2010, the meals were served hot and ready-to-eat. All told, about 75 volunteers help keep the organization running.

“In the years since its inception, Meals on Wheels has grown greatly,” Yochim said. “Deliveries occur outside of Jamestown, not just inside the city’s borders. That Chautauqua County Office For the Aging has a contract with Meals on Wheels to deliver subsidized meals to individuals in most of Chautauqua County who can’t pay for meals, or can only pay a small amount.”

“Meals on Wheels operates more than a dozen delivery vehicles to get meals delivered each day. That doesn’t even include the more than 75 individuals who volunteer their time each month to deliver meals by using their own vehicles. Meals are prepared each day by the fabulous staff at UPMC Chautauqua, at the former Jamestown General Hospital.”

Yochim said Meals on Wheels operates through federal, state and local funding. The group also receives donations and money through fundraising efforts.

“This year we are celebrating 50 years of helping seniors, the disabled and the homebound to continue to live independently and with dignity in their own homes,” said Cindy Schnelzer, Jamestown Meals and Wheels board president. “Our work would not be possible without the volunteers who serve our organization. They are a dedicated, compassionate team who are both efficient and professional in delivering nutritious meals. They also have developed a bond with many who receive our services.”

The Jamestown Meals on Wheels is hosting a 50th anniversary recognition event Tuesday at Doubletree by Hilton in Jamestown. A reception will be held at 5:45 p.m., with the dinner and event planned for 6:30 p.m.

“I remain proud of our organization’s continuing dedication to ‘get the job done’ despite obstacles we face,” Schnelzer said. “Every member of our Board of Directors, both past and present, has embraced our mission. Our dedicated staff under the leadership of Barrie Yochim, director, together with our Board of Directors continues to search for that which is paramount to all of us — improving the quality of life for each of our clients.”