Home Hot Topics Coronavirus Meals on Wheels volunteers driven to feed a growing community need

Meals on Wheels volunteers driven to feed a growing community need

By

James Bessette

-

03/19/2021

LOADING UP: Meg Grady, executive director for Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, and volunteer Ted Fischer, CEO of Ageless Innovation, help load food into vehicles for some deliveries. Grady said the organization’s home-delivery program saw a 7% increase in seniors served and a 9% increase in meals served in 2020 compared with 2019. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

IT IS A MISSION that literally drives people to help the community, complete with a hot meal to give to those in need. Over the past year, Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island’s importance and need reached significant levels. Not long after the Providence-based organization kicked off its March for Meals campaign, the COVID-19 pandemic

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IT IS A MISSION that literally drives people to help the community, complete with a hot meal to give to those in need. Over the past year, Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island’s importance and need reached significant levels. Not long after the Providence-based organization kicked off its March for Meals campaign, the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and altered life for everyone. Among those impacted are homebound senior residents, who are at high risk of infection, or worse. Meals on Wheels put the call out for volunteer drivers and more than 500 responded willing to help, according to Meg Grady, the organization’s executive director. From there, the volunteers went to work across the state to feed a fast-growing need. “These volunteers report to us saying they get just as much satisfaction out of the program as the program gets the benefit of our services,” Grady said. Grady said Meals on Wheels’ traditional home-delivery program saw a 7% increase for seniors served and served 9% more meals compared with 2019. Additionally, from April through December 2020, the organization, partnering with local municipalities, served an additional 290,000 COVID-19 response meals. The organization also partnered with senior centers in Warren, Newport, Woonsocket, Johnston and North Providence to deliver meals there, Grady said. At the Edward King House in Newport, Meals on Wheels did approximately 300 to 400 more meals per day to feed those in need, Grady said, and an additional 500 meals per day were delivered across Providence. Delivering meals isn’t the only task Meals on Wheels volunteers perform. Considering 62% of Rhode Island’s senior residents that the organization served lived alone, volunteers also did a life-safety check to make sure senior residents were safe and well. Grady said that a lot of seniors said the Meals on Wheels volunteer was the only person they saw during the pandemic, and they were relieved to see “that friendly face at the door.” “Our program has absolutely saved lives,” Grady said. James Bessette is special projects editor at PBN. Contact him at Bessette@PBN.com.