What a $49,000 Grocery Bill Looks Like: Inside a Week at Meals on Wheels People

Hi, {{first__name | reader}},

Your weekly grocery run might involve a shopping cart and a checklist. For the team at Meals on Wheels People, it involves pallets, semi-trucks, and a budget that tops $49,000. 

Welcome back to Rose City Receipts, where this week we’re exploring a grocery diary of a different magnitude. We’re stepping inside the organization’s Central Kitchen to see how they turn thousands of pounds of ingredients into more than 22,000 meals, serving our community’s older adults with precision, care, and a whole lot of chicken thighs.

Who are you? The Meals on Wheels People Central Kitchen
Where do you live? Multnomah Village
What’s your weekly grocery budget (roughly)?: $49,000
How many people are you shopping for?: We’ll be cooking for about 3,500 to 3,600 homebound seniors for a total of 22,032 meals this week. (At our 15 neighborhood dining centers, we’ll cook and serve 1,500 more meals to older adults.) We’re a little behind on our emergency meal stock — meals we keep frozen so we can continue feeding people even when weather shuts down the kitchen, a supplier falls through, or demand suddenly spikes. This week, that means producing 29,600 meals in total to try to catch up. (That’s the equivalent of feeding a sold-out Moda Center — and then serving 9,000 more people dinner afterward!)
What are your favorite stores?: Columbia Empire Meat Co., Medosweet Farms, Franz Bakery, Pacific Coast Fruit Company, United Salad Co., and Pacific Food Distributors are some of our local partners.  
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping?: Balancing cost and nutrition

We consider many factors when planning our menus. First, we need to offer enough variety to meet our meal recipients’ preferences — for example, no pork or vegetarian meals only — and ensure we have medically tailored meals for those with special dietary needs, such as renal diets. Our in-house dietitian helps guide this process. Once menus are set, we purchase the ingredients we need, which can mean sourcing hundreds (or even thousands) of pounds of a single item. 

All of our meals must meet very strict nutritional and food safety standards, so we only purchase from suppliers that meet our quality assurance requirements. Our meals are low in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, and we avoid ultra-processed ingredients whenever possible. We also prioritize sourcing from local Portland-Vancouver metro area companies.

The challenges are real: Food prices keep climbing, supply chain issues can make it difficult to secure such large orders, and demand for our services is rising. Last year alone, we served more than 1 million meals to over 9,000 older adults — a nearly 5% increase over the previous year — and that growth shows no signs of slowing.

At the end of the day, our top priority is making sure every senior in our service area, which includes Multnomah and Washington counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington, has access to a meal when they need one. 

Weekly total: $49,249.66
Eating out total: $0! (We cook for our staff every day — a perk that not only keeps everyone fueled but also helps cut down on their own grocery bills.)
Groceries total: $49,249.66
Most-expensive line item: Chicken thighs ($8,176.36)
Least-expensive line item: Dried oregano ($9.91)

Mondays are always our heaviest days in terms of purchasing. Because we try to keep ingredients fresh, limit waste, and work within our small storage space, we only bring in enough for a day or two at a time. That means Mondays are busy: All the dry goods and most of the frozen items for the week arrive, along with daily meat deliveries. We also get milk for our meal recipients on Mondays and Wednesdays. Today, that meant unloading 1,680 half-gallons to send out over the next few days.

In the kitchen, we kept the ovens going nonstop. By the end of the day, we’d cooked:

Each one destined for a neighbor who might otherwise go without. It’s a lot to keep moving, but Mondays set the tone for the whole week.

Monday total: $18,961.12

Tuesdays are another big purchasing day. In addition to bringing in extra meat for the additional meals this week, we also received most of our produce. Some of it goes straight into the kitchen for cooking, and the rest is sent out to meal recipients. Depending on their diet plan, each recipient receives 3–10 pieces of fresh fruit every week, plus a loaf of whole-wheat bread every other week if they request it. This week alone, we unloaded 2,374 loaves of bread to send out across our service area!

In the kitchen, we kept the pace up, cooking:

By the end of the day, the kitchen smelled like gravy and roasted potatoes — a true comfort food day.

Tuesday total: $14,703.27

Wednesdays are a welcome breather for our warehouse team — orders are much lighter. Today, we only received milk and frozen vegetables.

In the kitchen, though, we kept things humming. Today’s menu included:

Wednesday total: $5,334.10

Thursdays are all about gearing up for the week ahead. We bring in the ingredients we’ll need for Monday’s meals, along with fruit, milk, bread, and high-protein snacks for our meal recipients. Next week’s protein snack will be yogurt cups — a perfect match with one of the fresh fruit options we’re sending out: fresh blueberries.

In the kitchen today, we prepared:

By Thursday afternoon, the kitchen starts to feel like it’s already looking ahead — stocking up, planning forward, and keeping things moving so Monday runs smoothly.

Thursday total: $10,251.17

Our kitchen takes a well-deserved break from Friday through Sunday. After a busy week of sourcing ingredients and preparing thousands of meals each day, this pause gives our team time to recharge before we start it all over again on Monday.

Friday total: $0

Our shopping strategy is all about planning ahead. With the size of our orders, organization is key. We typically place them at least two weeks in advance. That gives our suppliers time to pull together such large quantities, and it gives us time to pivot if something ends up out of stock. Staying proactive helps us keep meals on track for the thousands of older adults who count on us every day.

It’s a huge operation — but one that’s powered by community support. Every gift of time or resources helps us keep the ovens hot, the trucks loaded, and, most importantly, our older neighbors nourished and cared for.

One of our Central Kitchen favorites, this recipe comes from Alex Helser, our director of Central Kitchen operations. It’s a Meals on Wheels People classic that Alex loves to make — the chicken stays juicy while the tomato sauce and cheese create a comforting, homey flavor that’s always a hit with our meal recipients.

It’s one thing to read that Meals on Wheels People serves thousands; it’s another to see the numbers behind it: $8,176 for chicken thighs, 2,374 loaves of bread, and a total weekly bill of nearly $50,000. 

This isn’t just a grocery list — it’s a testament to the immense, often invisible, effort required to fight senior hunger in our community. As food costs rise and the need grows, their work is more critical than ever. This story shows that every dollar, every volunteer hour, and every bit of support translates directly into a warm meal and a moment of connection for a neighbor in need.

Thank you to the team for pulling back the curtain on what it truly takes to nourish our community.

Next week, I’m happy to bring you a Rose City Receipts from a Savers Club member who is also a food chemist! Want to be featured in Rose City Receipts? Email [email protected] and share your grocery shopping approach!

Happy saving!
Bryan,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings