The community of Perry continues to StepUp to join the Perry Lutheran Homes to care for the most pressing needs of its elderly citizens. A recent example that demonstrates the heart this community has for its elderly residents is a gift of $3,000 given by Heather Bruce and her team at Osmundson Manufacturing.
This gift will be used to provide and deliver daily hot meals to home-bound elderly and disabled people in Perry and northern Dallas County through the Perry Lutheran Homes’ Meals on Wheels project.
Melissa Gannon, chief operating officer at the Perry Lutheran Homes, was happy to welcome Osmundson Manufacturing as a partner in providing for needy elders.
“This gift will go a long way to help us bring not only needed nutritious food,” Gannon said, “but also the friendly face of the volunteer who delivers the meal each day. They also serve as a daily contact with people who might not otherwise have anyone to talk to or check on them.”
Wanda Pritzel, the Perry Lutheran Homes’ director of charitable giving, said gifts are still needed to make sure all elderly in our area who need food receive it.
“About 85 percent of meals served through Meals on Wheels are provided at low or no cost,” Pritzel said. “A donation of $45 covers a week’s worth of delivered meals for one elder citizen. Any gift helps -– large or small!”
Osmundson Manufacturing is a fifth-generation, family-owned company producing high-quality tillage equipment and tools for the agriculture community. The company uses only American-made steel in its products, and its work environment is characterized by creativity, innovation, quality and providing for the needs of customers.
In addition to caring for customers, the company’s family-like work environment extends to caring for each other and to those in the Perry community in need.
“We’re concerned about the vulnerable people in our community,” said Heather Bruce, owner of Osmundson Manufacturing. “For years we have supported the backpack program, which provides nutritious and easy-to-prepare food for at-risk children to eat on the weekends when they would likely otherwise only get meals at school. The Perry Lutheran Homes’ Meals on Wheels project seems like a natural extension of that same interest.”
Bruce first saw information about this new effort to prepare and bring needed food directly to the homes of elderly in the local news media. She then contacted Perry Lutheran Homes to see what was needed and quickly offered to help.
Mollie Clark is the director of marketing for the Perry Lutheran Homes.
