Meals on Wheels recruiting volunteers as it keeps up call for funding

Meals on Wheels of Grundy County hosted an open house Thursday morning at Saratoga Towers, 1700 Newton Drive, Morris, where it showed off its services, and also shared its need for more volunteer drivers.

Nutrition Director Pat Strahan said she currently has 37 volunteers, around 2/3s of which are drivers. She could use between four and six additional drivers, but there’s always a need for more volunteers, in general.

For a lot of the elderly folks served by Meals on Wheels, the driver delivering their meal might be the only person they interact with all day.

“They develop lifelong friendships sometimes,” Strahan said. “We had one guy who used to drive for us, and he knew the key to getting one little old lady off her couch to open the door. The door was always open, but locked, and you could see her on the couch. He’d try to get her to come get her food and she wouldn’t.”

It turns out, Strahan said, that the driver, Alfie, knew the trick to getting her off the couch. He’d bring her a glazed donut.

Strahan said they became lifelong friends, and they met through Meals on Wheels.

Beyond the need for volunteers, Meals on Wheels is also facing trouble due to threats to its funding by President Donald Trump. Strahan said it’s important for legislators to understand how vital these programs are to seniors in the community, partly because of the café.

“If we can get them out of their house and socialize with the community, they’re still out and moving, and they’re active,” Strahan said. “Being at home, the home delivery program can make sure they’re safe and secure and being fed while they’re in their home because part of that is the drivers do a well-being check to make sure they’re all right.”

Strahan said she and everyone with Meals on Wheels have been writing letters and making phone calls trying to get legislators to come see their programming. She hasn’t had any luck.

She said she’s also asking her seniors to write to their legislators and she’s planning on hand-delivering those letters.

“It’s kind of a freakout, but we’re trying not to,” Strahan said. “We’re just trying to keep working our way through it and make our voices heard, and get our people involved and do as much as we can with it. It’s vitally important. You can’t just cancel the programs.”

Strahan said there is a suggested donation of $4.75 per meal, but it’s not a requirement and Meals on Wheels will never turn anyone away. She said the first people to try and get off the programs are the ones who can’t make the donation, and she has to explain to them that it’s not necessary. Nobody is kicked off of the Meals on Wheels program because they can’t make a donation.

Meals on Wheels covers all of Grundy County, and Strahan said routes take around two hours including deliveries and returning to Saratoga Towers. If she gets more drivers, she said she can split the routes up to be shorter so everyone can get to their deliveries faster. Right now, Meals on Wheels has anywhere between 16 and 25 people on a route.

Meals on Wheels is more than just the home delivery program, though. It also has a community café open at Saratoga Towers at 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, and other activities like bingo Wednesday in Friday. It also has satellite cafés in Coal City, Mazon and Minooka.

It also has the Senior Dining Program, which allows seniors to get a meal at the Whistle Stop at 2080 E. Division St., Coal City. Strahan said Meals on Wheels is hoping to get more restaurants to sign up for the Senior Dining Program.