On any given week day, at about noon, a veritable army of volunteers fans out across our state on a mission. They are the Meals on Wheels volunteers, delivering simple Maine-cooked, nutritious meals to thousands of Maine’s most vulnerable older adults. While the act may seem simple, the benefits of the Meals on Wheels program are profound.

The Meals on Wheels program, administered through Maine’s five area agencies on aging, has been providing Maine-cooked, nutrition-dense meals to older adults since 1972. The program provides nutritious meals to homebound older adults who are over 60, unable to cook for themselves and have no one else to prepare meals for them regularly. While it may not seem like much, these home-delivered meals are often the factor that makes it possible for an older person to stay at home, independently, where they want to be.

Meals are delivered to the end of country lanes, to farms lying dormant; to a blind couple; a man just released from the hospital, living alone; to a mother in early states of dementia whose children live in another state. Many of the people who receive these meals would otherwise have to move into assisted living or nursing homes. The meals provide older adults with nutrition and energy to continue living safely on their own, in their own homes.

Consider one client who received home-delivered meals after a month-long hospital stay due to cancer. She returned home with little appetite and no energy to shop and cook. She was a frail 102 pounds. Slowly, the meals helped her regain her strength, until her physician commented on her improvement in energy levels, and outlook on life. While receiving meals, she gained 16 pounds and is now able to “do it on her own.” Today she knits mittens and hats for other Meals on Wheels clients as a way to give back.

The Meals on Wheels program offers an incredible return on investment that should not be ignored. Nationally, and in Maine, home-delivered meals are an integrated part of efforts to reduce hospital re-admissions because they provide much needed nutrition at a time of depleted ability and health. A 2012 Brown University study demonstrated that home-delivered meals significantly delays entry to nursing homes. The cost to provide meals through Meals on Wheels to someone for a year is approximately $2,000. The cost of a nursing home is between $65,000 and $98,000 per year.

The simple meal delivery not only offers nutrition, independence, health and cost savings, it offers something much more compelling — a well-being check and a friendly break to social isolation. Every year, our Meals on Wheels volunteers find older adults in emergency situations with no heat or electricity, no other food, confused or in need of medical attention and can quickly connect them to crucial services.

Unfortunately, nearly every year at about this time, wait lists for this simple service begin. In fact, nearly all of Maine’s agencies on aging have wait lists for the program. Despite intense fundraising by Maine’s area agencies on aging, it is not enough. Funding from the federal Older Americans Act has remained stagnant for well over a decade, despite the increase in need.

Last year, Maine’s area agencies on aging — Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, Spectrum Generations, Eastern Area Agency on Aging, SeniorsPlus and Southern Maine Agency on Aging — served more than half a million meals to nearly 4,700 older adults. As our population ages, demand continues to grow. No amount of fundraising can keep up with the demand, and it’s now time for the state to invest wisely in this program that offers a huge return in investment by passing LD 692, a Resolve to Provide Meals to Homebound Individuals.

Jessica Maurer is the executive director of the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging in Augusta.