Meals on Wheels of Salinas Valley celebrates 45 years, even with some foreboding changes.

On a sunny Tuesday morning, husband-and-wife duo Roger and Linda Levine roll up in their Lexus SUV to a Salinas home with an overgrown lawn. Linda retrieves the goods from the trunk: A cardboard box filled with five frozen meals, a blue blanket with an owl pattern, a cupcake with blue frosting and a birthday card.

“Meals on Wheels!” Linda declares as she knocks.

Linda is greeted by Diane Smith, the birthday girl. “I turn 74 today, but I’m glad I don’t feel 74,” Smith says, smiling.

Smith is one of the five people Roger and Linda will visit today, and one of the over 350 people in the Salinas areas served by the program this year.

Smith is a fan: “The people are nice and they stopped giving overcooked broccoli.”

Just like Smith, Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley is celebrating a birthday – its 45th – with wine tasting, appetizers and dessert at recently relocated Portobello’s in Oldtown Salinas on Thursday, Sept. 14. Since 1973, the nonprofit has served a growing number of homebound people. Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley has never had to impose a waiting list, unlike many chapters of the nationwide program.

Program manager Claudia Aguilera credits dependable volunteers, who cover large territories to make food deliveries. “We’ve never had a shortage of volunteers,” she says. “We have a very reliable group of people.”

In the garage-like facility adjacent to the office, there’s a small industrial fridge, and framed photo collages of happy volunteers and clients hang along the wall. On a recent summer day, six volunteers chat and sip coffee by a box truck before heading out for the day.

Unlike Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula, which utilizes a kitchen at the Sally Griffin Senior Center in Pacific Grove, food delivered from here is mainly frozen; clients heat it in the microwave. The meals come in boxes from Florida-based Sea Meadow, via a cold-storage facility in Castroville.

Aguilera grabs a box and peels off the tape to reveal its contents. Every box has a loaf of bread, cartons of milk and juice, and five to seven frozen meals.

Though “meals” is part of the name, the nonprofit has expanded to offer other services to homebound clients. There are bags of dog and cat food, provided by the SPCA for Monterey County. Extras like peanut butter, canned corn, and bags of seasonal produce are provided by a partnership with the Food Bank for Monterey County. The clientele has also expanded, from beyond the definition of “senior” (60 or older): The Helping Adults with our Nutritional Delivery Service (HANDS) program launched about a year ago to serve disabled adults, for a fee of $120 a month.

While programming has expanded, Executive Director Regina Gage looks to the future with concern: “If the Trump administration decides to make cuts to the Older Americans Act, we may have to make tough choices,” she says.

The total annual budget for Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley is $721,892; one-third of that originates from money appropriated by the federal government under the Older Americans Act. Clients are asked to donate what they can.

Gage has already made changes to remain financially sustainable.

That change, however, doesn’t dampen the friendly dynamics between clients and volunteers like the Levines, who are both in their 70s.

“You hardly meet grumpy clients,” Roger says. “Maybe later, in the paper, you find that one passes away and it hurts. With this little interaction you become close to them.”

Roger parks the SUV at an apartment complex that houses several clients, and stacks boxes on a dolly. He does the lifting and pushing, and waits outside while Linda visits each client for a few minutes. She listens to their frustrations and observations of the day, deploying a skill set she’s been honing for years.

“I started volunteering for Meals on Wheels of Ontario [California] after my grandmother died in 1990,” Linda says. “It was a good way to commemorate her. You have to put your heart into it.”

On the next stop, Fawn Leaver, who uses a wheelchair and lives with her cat Tiger, opens the door. Linda quickly closes the door behind her so Tiger can’t escape. “Tiger likes getting his food delivered, but sometimes he wants to try some of my dinner too,” Leaver jokes.

Even better than the pet food and Leaver’s favorite dish – three-cheese macaroni – are interactions with her visitors. “If I had it my way, they would never leave my apartment,” Leaver says.

But 10 minutes later, Linda is back on the move, taking the elevator downstairs to deliver another meal.

MEALS ON WHEELS OF THE SALINAS VALLEY 45th anniversary is at 5:30-7:30pm on Thursday, Sept. 14, at Portobello’s, 105 Main St., Salinas. $45. 758-6325, mowsalinas.org