Local Meals on Wheels charity facing dire future with demand for services at all-time high

When microwave-ready meals arrive at Emily Bease’s Myrtle Beach apartment, she always takes time to read the brief passage affixed to the top of them.

“That makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I’m going to have a good today, and nothing could change it,” Bease said.

Bease is among the thousands of people served every week by Meals on Wheels of Horry and Georgetown County, but the volunteer-driven nonprofit is facing an uncertain future with its lease at its 2250 U.S. Highway 501 location running out.

“There are no options out there for us. There’s no places to rent, we don’t have the funds to purchase a place in our community,” CEO Michael Snuggs said. Founded in 2009, Snuggs inherited the operation five years ago.

It would take between $800,000 and $1.6 million to secure a location equipped with the full-service kitchen needed to produce the meals.

Snuggs said Meals on Wheels has about $150,000 in a building fund all through the strength of private donations, but the organization needs nearly $100,000 more by Christmas to qualify for a bank loan and down payment.

Rent at the current site owned by a property management firm is set to jump from $3,500 a month to $6,000, Snuggs said.

The upheaval is coming at time when need for subsidized meals continues to surge. In 2020, Snuggs said Meals on Wheels was serving around 75 clients a week. Today, the number is near 1,000.

Snuggs keeps a graphic on his laptop showing weekly delivery routes in 2020 compared to runs made last year, and the lines snake across Horry County all the way into Andrews and Hemingway in Georgetown. It can take some drivers more than two hours to finish up their deliveries.

That’s as South Carolina ranks 10th nationally in senior population, and 14th in the number of seniors who are food insecure, according to Meals on Wheels America.

Todd West has volunteered in Snuggs’ kitchen since June after spending six years delivering meals in and around Melbourne, Florida.

“I think a lot of people don’t know about Meals on Wheels here as well as possibly they should,” West said. “Because I don’t see how, if people did, they wouldn’t donate more if they knew about it.”

Snuggs took to the nonprofit’s Facebook page on Oct. 27, posting a lengthy message explaining the situation.

Meals on Wheels of Horry and Georgetown County has no affiliation with the national organization, and ended the 2021 fiscal year with less than $48,000 in revenues according to its federal Form 990 filing.

Last year, the nonprofit served 194,814 meals to 994 clients, who Snuggs calls “grandparents.”

On Nov. 3, Snuggs stood among pallets of almonds, rice, pasta, raisins and other non-perishable items slated for disbursal over the next few days. The items are lined underneath a wall-length montage showing volunteers at work.

“I just can’t believe that in six weeks, we might not be doing this anymore,” Snuggs said.

In addition to the nutrition Meals on Wheels provides, it’s also important for the health and safety of its recipients.

“Just two weeks ago, one of our drivers came back and basically said that if she hadn’t gone to this woman, she had already been laying on the floor for three days,” Snuggs said. “She could have been dead, if she didn’t go.”

James Hughes, of Myrtle Beach, is among those who experience the generosity of Meals on Wheels.

“They come visit you, they call you, they talk to you and I’m alone a lot, I got people here but I’m alone,” he said. “I can’t get up and do stuff for myself too well. The love they share, it’s amazing. And it makes you want to do more for God, and I do because of it.”