Natrona County Meals on Wheels Cancels 'Bubbles, Baubles & Beans'

Natrona County Meals on Wheels announced that, due to COVID-19, they are not holding their annual Bubbles, Baubles, and Beans fundraiser this year.

“Because of COVID, we weren’t comfortable with having the event,” said Jamie Loveall, the Executive Director of Natrona County Meals on Wheels. “We didn’t feel like we could do it in a safe enough matter, so we just decided it was better if we just cancelled the event this year.”

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However, Meals on Wheels is still offering their annual ‘Pot of Beans’ raffle, it will just take place online this year.

“In talking about it, we thought that the biggest part of the fundraiser is the beans raffle and we can still do that,” Loveall stated. “We can still sell the pot of beans, the raffle tickets, and we could still do a drawing and we could still have a winner.”

Loveall stated they have just 300 beans in the pot left to raffle off. Individuals can purchase a bean for $100 and it could be worth up to $5,000. Cash prizes currently total $10,575.

Once all of the beans are sold, Meals on Wheels said that they will do a live Facebook event for the Reverse Raffle. They will also send out email updates.

The first ticket drawn is worth $400, and the last ticket remaining is worth $5,000. There are 29 additional chances to win, according to the Meals on Wheels Facebook page.

Because this is Natrona County Meals on Wheels’ 50^th anniversary, Loveall did say that they hope to be able to have a celebration sometime in the near future.

“It is our 50^th anniversary this year, and we’re going to try and do something fun around it,” she said. “Once we sell all the tickets and draw the names, eventually we’ll try to plan a fun 50^th anniversary party.”

As fun as the Bubbles, Baubles, and Beans events usually are, the most important part of the night is ensuring that seniors in Natrona County are fed and that, Loveall said, is the priority.

“State and Federal grants only make up about half of our budget,” she revealed. “The other half of that budget has to be raised somehow. And it’s important for us to make sure that no senior goes hungry. And in order to make sure that no senior goes hungry and that we don’t have to have a waiting list, we need to have some type of fundraising, even in these trying times of social distancing.”

The Meals on Wheels Facebook page states that an individual’s $100 raffle ticket purchase will feed a senior in Natrona County for approximately one month.

There may be no bubbles or baubles this year, but there will be beans and, most importantly, there will be a chance to make sure that no senior in Natrona County goes hungry.

For more information, or to purchase a raffle ticket ‘bean,’ call 307-265-8659 or visit https://mealswheels.com/how-to-help/