Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 11

Much of the world knows Martha's Vineyard for shark movies and celebrity sitings, a place for Kennedys and vacationing Clintons. But the Vineyard has a large class of locals just barely getting by. Last year, for example, a meals program operated by Elder Services of the Cape and Islands, distributed more than 17,000 lunches to people who couldn't cook or leave their homes to shop, and probably couldn't afford many of the groceries the island stores shelf anyway.

It's just past 10:30 in the morning, and cook Steve Lungerbardy is packing up about 350 lunches in the kitchen at Martha's Vineyard Hospital.

Steve Lungerbardy: "They're in the oven, they're warming as we speak. Today we have Sweedish meatballs, egg noodles, spinach, I'm going to put out my coolers now, we pack cold coolers, we put ice in them. Desserts."

In about an hour most of the lunches will find their way into the bellies of the island's elders, many of whom are low-income shut-ins. The meals will travel in hatchbacks, pick- ups and taxis to four senior centers and about 150 homes. They're Meals on Wheels.

"Hello! Have your meal here for ya."

That's Bill Brown. He and Janice Perrin give up their lunch hour once a week to volunteer for Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, which operates the Meals on Wheels program.

Brown manages the Edgartown office for the Martha's Vineyard Insurance Agency, while Perrin is the program director of the Island Boys and Girls Club, a job she can only afford to stay in because an acquaintance lets her lives for free in an Oak Bluffs basement.

Each week, Brown and Perrin look forward to seeing 86-year-old Doris Low. Like many clients, Low has been established on the island for decades. Before she retired she was a scientist with the government and a soloist with a vocal quartet at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Without the Meals on Wheels program, Low says she probably wouldn't eat very often. Her age makes it hard to get around the kitchen or out to stores. Besides that, everything just costs so much now.

Doris Low: "I wouldn't leave the island if they dragged me out by my feet. I would not. Because I like the people....But this is changed, so. It really has changed so much. I can't remember right now how much this house is worth, but it's amazing. But I still scrabble my pennies, and that is why I am still here."

A lot of folks are scrabbling their coins these days. While there are no financial requirements for the Meals on Wheels program, Jackie Cage, the Martha's Vineyard director of Elder Services, says the number of clients is growing, but their ability to pay for the service, even a nominal amount, is waning.

Jackie Cage: "There is no fee for the meals, it is a suggested donation. And the suggested donation at this time is two dollars a meal. And we have noticed that our participants are, as a whole, that the funds that we are receiving as donations from our participants is declining. And I can't help but think that has to do with finances."

The residents of Martha's Vineyard are changing, and Islanders point to inflated property values over the past two decades as the reason why. When Bill Brown moved here in 1984, for example, he bought his home for $85,000.

Bill Brown: "That house today, I was told, I can get anywhere between six and seven-hundred 'k' for it, absolutely ridiculous. Who can afford that? So what is happening is a lot of people are cashing out, they're moving out, and they are not being replaced. I just heard a story where a barber here on the island cashed out, he and his wife, a part-time bookkeeper. They sold their house for five or six-hundred thousand bucks. I mean, a barber is not going to buy that house and move to the island. So, we just lost a arber."

As the baby boomers retire, there will be even fewer locals to cut hair, run insurance agencies and operate nonprofit organizations. Even the Meals on Wheels program is experiencing great difficulty finding new volunteers.

Almost all the people they do have are retired, and may need the program themselves soon enough.

Driving one of the Oak Bluffs routes last week was Olive Tomlinson, a year-round resident who says she volunteers because her mother received the same service for the eight years before she died, and for her mom, the program was a lifeline.

Olive Tomlinson: "It wasn't so much the food, it was the volunteers who came. And when she passed a few years ago, they were all at her memorial. It was such a pleasure to meet these people... These might be the hidden people, but they areour people, and it is just a delight to be able to meet them."

The families of many locals have lived on Martha's Vineyard for generations, well before this place gained a reputation as a rich person's playground. But as more locals are forced off island, the concern is that Martha's Vineyard may ultimately end up as truly a place just for the wealthy.