Happenings

Eastside Fort Worth Community Events

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Meals On Wheels Has Urgent Need for Volunteers
Tarrant County nonprofit seeks help
delivering meals in Fort Worth

Fort Worth, TX – Meals On Wheels, Inc. of Tarrant County has a dire need for volunteers to deliver meals in east and southeast Fort Worth. The areas with the greatest need are Woodhaven, Handley, Poly and Forest Hill. These areas have many aging residents, requiring the local nonprofit to start new delivery routes often. Also, several of the current volunteers are retired and find they cannot drive for health reasons. The nonprofit agency’s delivery drivers are all volunteers and must provide their own transportation.

Meals On Wheels of Tarrant County does not believe in placing frail people who need food on waiting lists. “Meal-delivery volunteers are critical to that policy, so the need is especially urgent,” says Executive Director Carla Jutson. The agency delivers meals Mondays through Fridays. In about an hour a week, a volunteer driver can significantly improve the life of a homebound neighbor by providing nourishment and a friendly face. Volunteers for the agency may claim vehicle mileage used throughout the year as a deduction on their income tax return.\Volunteering might be easier than you think. Volunteers go to a nearby pick-up site between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. to collect meals for their route. They receive a sheet with each client’s address; a route is typically only 8–10 stops near the pick-up site. Volunteers get to know the clients on their route and become friends and, more importantly, lifelines for those who see no one else all day.

Some volunteers have a regular route they deliver one day a week; others substitute when regular drivers are unavailable. Many companies adopt a route to share among employees. Each delivery volunteer must pass a criminal background check and attend an orientation to learn policies and procedures. Meals On Wheels of Tarrant County provides coolers and insulated bags for those who need them; keeping hot and cold items separate is essential to each client’s health and enjoyment of the meal.

“A little time each week makes all the difference in the world to a homebound person,” Jutson said. To volunteer, call Director of Volunteers Nedra Cutler at 817-258-6426 or visit mealsonwheels.org.

Meals On Wheels, Inc. of Tarrant County is a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing fresh, nutritious ready-to-eat meals and other services to homebound residents of the county who are unable to prepare meals for themselves and have no one to help them on a regular basis. Meals are prepared in the agency’s central kitchen to ensure the highest quality food at the lowest cost. The services allow their elderly, disabled and chronically ill neighbors to remain living at home for as long as possible, maintaining their independence and dignity.

If you would like to go out on a route with a volunteer please let me know.  Becky Haskins former Fort Worth City Council member and longtime Meals On Wheels Volunteer is available for interviews.

 

Sad news for East Fort Worth
Kroger on Bridgewood to close

It has been brought to the attention of Greater Meadowbrook News that one of our major grocery stores, Kroger on Bridgewood, will be closing in a few weeks. This is disheartening for our neighborhoods as we fight for renewal of businesses in our community.
On a personal note, this is the store which Don and Jim and I use for all our grocery needs. The pharmacy fills our prescriptions. Mandy and James have taken such good care of us and our medications that I feel like we’re losing a part of our family.
Danny Scarth is the council representative for the Woodhaven area, and Gary Huddleston is the local representative for Kroger Stores. I don’t know if anything we could say would make a difference, but for what it’s worth, if anyone feels like mounting an offensive to keep the store here, you’d have our support.
Mr. Huddleston’s phone number is 972-785-6004.

From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter:

1940 U.S. Census Records to be Free

by Shirley Apley, MLS, Senior Librarian

This "news" has been mentioned in previous newsletter articles but I discovered last week at the FGS conference that not everyone has "received the word." Therefore, I'll repeat the news in an attempt to tell even more people.

The 1940 U.S. census records will be released by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on April 2, 2012. That's less than seven months from now. Best of all, the more than 3.8 million original document images containing 130 million-plus records will be available to everyone free of charge.

To be sure, not everything will be available on April 2. Not only are the records unavailable to genealogists prior to April 2, those records are also unavailable to indexers and unavailable to the companies that host the records online. EVERYONE gains access on April 2. The companies involved in making the records available online will require several months to digitize and index the records and then to make them available online.

I would look for the records to become available online within days but without indexes. The indexes will probably be added around June or July. If you are looking for ancestors in any town or city of significant size, you will want the indexes.

Ancestry.com has already pledged to make the 1940 census records available online free of charge through the end of 2013. One will be able to search more than 45 fields, including name, gender, race, street address, county and state, and parents’ places of birth.

Other online sites also will offer the same records online, although with different indexes and with different search criteria. FamilySearch will have the records available free of charge forever.

Having different indexes is a great benefit as errors are common in all indexes. Having two or more versions of the records available makes it easy to compare one version agains the other version(s), greatly increasing the probability of finding the information you seek.

You can find more information about the release of the 1940 census on the National Archives and Records Administration's website at www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/index.html

You can also find 1940 census Enumeration Districts, a census street finder, and more at Steve Morse's One-Step Genealogy site at http://stevemorse.org/

Shirley Apley, MLS, Senior Librarian
Genealogy, History, Archives, Literature
Fort Worth Library
500 West 3rd Street
Fort Worth, TX  76102
817-392-7740
 Central Library's hours:
Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat - 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Tues, Thurs - 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Sun - 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Greater Meadowbrook News is published every other Thursday for residents and businesses of East Fort Worth, and West Arlington. Publishers reserve the right to reject or edit advertising and/or copy submitted for publication that may be considered objectionable to readers. Information contained in any guest article appearing in the Greater Meadowbrook News is the sole responsibility of the author and Thedoes not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy of the Publishers. In such cases, Publishers will not be held liable for any incident which may result from the use or misuse of such information.

Publishers: Jim Conlin and Wanda Conlin.

Greater Meadowbrook News, P.O. Box 24264, Fort Worth, Texas 76124 • Office: 817.413.0019 • Fax: 817.413.0043 • MeadowbrookNews@sbcglobal.net

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