Every day, about 250 area seniors get a nutritious meal courtesy of Chenango County; many are delivered to their doorsteps by volunteers participating in the Meal on Wheels program.
The Chenango County Public Safety Facility’s kitchen prepares the 250 meals daily for the Chenango County Area Agency on Aging, whose volunteers and staff deliver them to anyone 60 years or older in need.
On Monday, I traveled to the Grace Manor Apartment Welcome Center in the Village of Sherburne and met with the site’s staff, who deliver around 60 meals three days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
When the program began in 1974, 75 percent of the meals were consumed at senior or community centers, but today 75 percent are now delivered to residences, explained Deb Sanderson, director of the Area Agency on Aging.
“All seniors 60 or older are eligible for the program. Income is not a deciding factor; it is a need-based program,” she said.
Sanderson said many who receive meals suffer from varying degrees of physical disability and chronic illness.
“They face certain challenges in the routine activities of daily living,” she said.
The senior nutrition program is aimed at providing regular, balanced meals to individuals – but just as important, according to Sanderson, is the social aspect.
“It’s valuable because of the nutritional and social contact. People come into their centers and have a chance to see each other and eat,” said Trudy Harris-Irons, Nutritional Services Coordinator of Agency on Aging.
Harris motioned to a group of seniors in Sherburne dealing out cards in a corner of the room as they waited for their meals. “These kinds of activities are just as important as a good meal,” she said.
Site Manager Eva Neal said she serves about 20 people each of the three days at the welcome center and volunteers from the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ and St. Malachy’s Church deliver another 40 meals in their vehicles.
The meals are brought from the public safety building to each of the eight sites in Chenango County by the public transit system, whose drivers also make stops at homes along their routes to deliver individual meals, said Harris.
Struggling to find a regular source of volunteers, the three local churches work together in a rotating schedule, asking their congregations to lend a hand to those in need, explained Neal.
Maxine McCarty of the United Methodist Church was one of the two site volunteers delivering meals Monday.
She and her late husband began delivering meals for the program when it first started in Sherburne back in the 1970s.
“The way the rotation is set up, most donate about an hour of their time every three weeks to a month,” she said.
I asked Maxine why she volunteered, curious to figure out why more did not.
“Why volunteer? They asked me to do it a long time ago. I mean there’s no reason why I couldn’t,” she said.
Maxine and I made 13 stops in our hour-plus trip through downtown Sherburne and a few outlying homes. We delivered about two meals to each house and at every stop we waited patiently until we received a response at the door.
As much as it is Maxine’s job to deliver the meals, she also checks on the welfare of those who receive them. If while on her run she is unable to contact a resident, the Area Agency on Aging contacts police to report the missed meal. Police then attempt to contact relatives to make sure everything is all right.
After doing the routine for so long and being a native of the area, Maxine has become very familiar with those on her route, often taking a brief moment to chat before moving on.
Meals on Wheels is always looking for volunteers to provide meals for area citizens each day, which include hot and cold entrees and frozen meals delivered on Fridays for the weekend. The program is offered throughout the county and in the Norwich area alone, there are about eight routes. It is offered through the Chenango County Area Agency on Aging, located at the County Office Building on 5 Court St. in Norwich.
People interested in volunteering, or those looking for more information, should call 337-1770.