day fifteen: meals on wheels

“I'm embarrassed we haven’t done this before.”

Suzy’s words as we finished up our route echoed my own thoughts of disbelief and shame.

This morning we made deliveries for Meals on Wheels, something I hadn't done since I helped Grandaddy, now deceased, on his route when I was a young boy. It's certainly something I never thought I would do on my birthday! (But more about that on Sunday's post...)

Meals on Wheels might be one of the most efficiently run non-profits in the city, if not the state.  They provide meals Monday through Friday to thousands of homebound senior adults in the county, and rely almost exclusively on volunteers—some help prepare food starting at 6:00 a.m., others help package the meals, and of course, there are those who make the deliveries. And all of this happens at NO COST to the clients.

We arrived at the office and, after a short conversation/orientation with the volunteer coordinator, we were given a detailed list of clients, including what kind of meal and drink they received. We got in line and picked up our drinks, and then were given the exact number and type of meals for our route. After that, all we had to do was just hop in the car and go.

Waiting to pick up our meals. Notice the assembly line making meals in the kitchen... Clockwork.

Our boxes of meals, ready for delivery.
Meals change on a 4 week rotation, and all are diabetic friendly and offer 35-40% daily nutritional value. Some meals are frozen, for clients who need meals over the weekend.

We were given detailed directions to each person’s house, and from house to house, and even instructions for each individual. For instance, for one man it said to knock and speak loudly, and to give him extra time to get to the door. So I banged on the door with my fist and shouted in a voice I thought was loud but apparently was also menacing…because he opened the door almost immediately (he had been waiting) and looked terrified . He did say “Thank you,” but I don’t know if it was because we brought him a meal or because we were not attempting a home invasion.

Waiting outside after banging on the door and shouting, ready to see the look of terror on another unsuspecting elderly face.

(Actually, all 11 of the clients we saw were very pleasant and extremely thankful.)

From the time we stepped in line to pick up the meals until our last delivery was less than an hour and a half. In that time, we delivered about 16 meals to 11 clients. We needed no special skills, apart from the ability to drive, and the people at the office did most of the work for us.

I think the most shocking realization this morning was not the system MOW uses, but the different types of people who are in need of food. Many, if not most, of the organizations that we will be working with during these 40 days provide food aid to the homeless and extremely poor. But the people we saw today live in neighborhoods we knew of...their houses were (usually) well-kept...many of them could have been our grandparents!

So why haven’t we done this before? Were we scared that it would be too dangerous, or too difficult, or take up too much time? Did we think that we couldn't do it with a baby (which is false...the baby went with us, was a hit at the office, and slept the entire route)? Was it just too much trouble?

Cutest. Volunteer. Ever.

What was it that kept us of from making this minimal sacrifice? I don't know what it was that kept us from helping out with Meals on Wheels, but I'm embarrassed that we haven't done this before, too. Because there are so many good reasons to do it...eleven of whom we got to meet today.