Citizen of the Week: Lizabeth Andrew Helps Keep Seniors Out of Nursing Homes

As fireworks fill the skies this Independence Day, Lizabeth Andrew, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Coweta, will celebrate her 76th birthday with the same purpose that has guided her for decades: helping older adults remain in the homes they love.

“I studied old people until I became one,” Andrew laughed.

The joke comes from a woman whose life’s work prepared her for the role she holds today. After spending 43 years in healthcare—most of them managing the Nurse Midwife Service at Grady and Emory—Andrew earned master’s degrees in public policy and gerontology. She says the leadership, grant writing, and public policy experience she gained throughout her career prepared her to lead Meals on Wheels of Coweta.

“Everything I learned at Grady and Emory I brought with me to Meals on Wheels,” Andrew said.

Andrew has served as executive director since 2011, leading the organization through remarkable growth. When she took over, Meals on Wheels of Coweta was serving about 40 people. Today, the nonprofit provides meals to nearly 240 homebound residents across Coweta County—a sixfold increase—with most receiving seven meals each week along with breakfast items, snacks, and other food as available.

Andrew’s education is one of the things that most impresses Cynthia Bennett, Board Chair of Meals on Wheels of Coweta.

“I think people will be surprised to know how educated she is in the field,” Bennett said. “Everybody looks at 501(c)(3)s and thinks it’s all passion, but we really have the person that is trained in this field.”

For Andrew, however, the mission has never been simply delivering food.

“The most important thing is we help people remain in their own homes longer because we provide them with the food they need,” Andrew said. “If we can help them maintain their lives in their own homes, they’re going to have a better quality of life, they’re going to be happier, and perhaps live longer.”

Meals are only part of what the organization provides. Volunteers often become clients’ only regular contact with the outside world, checking on their well-being and helping connect them with other resources when needed.

“Our volunteers are usually their only contact with the outside world,” Andrew said. “The volunteers they see may be the only people they see each week.”

Andrew’s passion for helping older adults grew from personal experience caring for her late husband Steve’s aging parents and disabled sister. While earning her master’s degree in gerontology, she also volunteered as a state ombudsman, visiting nursing homes and advocating for residents. Andrew said seeing neglect and abuse left a lasting impression and reinforced her belief that, whenever possible, older adults deserve the chance to remain in their own homes.

“Nobody needs to be mistreated, and like they don’t matter,” Andrew said.

“The Lord told me, ‘Keep them from going there. Keep them from going to nursing homes,'” Andrew said. “So that’s when I joined Meals on Wheels.”

Today, Meals on Wheels of Coweta serves homebound residents throughout the county, regardless of income, including hospice patients, people recovering after hospital stays, individuals awaiting organ transplants, and family caregivers struggling to keep loved ones at home. Whether someone lives in modest circumstances or a large home, Andrew said the need is the same when they can no longer safely prepare meals for themselves or leave home.

“It doesn’t matter how much money they have,” Andrew said. “Hunger is a great equalizer.”

Through partnerships with Piedmont Newnan Hospital, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, local restaurants, and hundreds of volunteers, the organization continues to expand its reach.

Andrew believes the work is far from finished.

“We’re never going to run out of old people that need help,” she said. “The long-range plan is to keep serving people.”

As she celebrates another birthday on July 4, Andrew will do what she has dedicated her life to doing—helping older adults remain in their own homes longer. For her, there’s no better way to celebrate independence than helping others keep theirs.

Do you know a Citizen like Lizabeth Andrew? We’d love for you to nominate them for a future Citizen of the Week.

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