Delivering friendships and hot meals

The Homewood Senior Center’s kitchen is put to work five days a week preparing lunch for the seniors that visit. Twelve of those meals, however, are loaded into volunteers’ cars to be delivered to those who are no longer able to leave their homes.

The Meals on Wheels of Central Alabama program runs two routes in Homewood, serving 12 senior citizens total, with the Homewood Senior Center anchoring those routes. Meals on Wheels Director Becky Wright said the program serves an average of 850 free meals daily to homebound seniors in Jefferson County, including special holiday meal packages.

Getting those meals to their recipients’ front doors relies on an army of volunteers. Among them is Homewood resident Donna Fletcher, who started volunteering five years ago at the invitation of a friend.

One day a month, Fletcher arrives at the Senior Center to pick up a stack of hot meals, all of which must meet federal nutrition guidelines. It takes an hour or so to complete her route, she said.

“What I enjoy is helping people who are less fortunate than me, people who are forgotten,” Fletcher said.

Wright said hamburger and hot dog day are popular with seniors, but the volunteers themselves are often the best part.

“It’s always just gratitude, because so much more than the meal it’s the check-in with people,” Wright said of the seniors’ response to being in the program.

Being unable to drive themselves means Meals on Wheels recipients may have no chance to socialize other than with the volunteers delivering their lunch. Many seniors don’t have family close by or have outlived their friends. Wright said about 30% of the seniors they serve are 90 or older.

“They are very isolated and so they look forward to the — even however brief they are — lunchtime visits,” she said.

Volunteers can take the time to talk at each house and catch up with the people they visit. Fletcher said she has previously helped a meal recipient take care of her rose bushes, too.

“We could be the only people they see for days at a time,” Fletcher said. “People forget about senior citizens, even their families.”

In addition to the friendly chat, it’s also a chance for a daily check-in on these seniors’ health and situation. Wright said Meals on Wheels often works with the Homewood Fire Department to do wellness checks when something seems amiss, and the program has stepped in to help with home maintenance and preventing evictions.

“That’s one of the municipalities that’s been really good in helping us” make sure seniors are safe, she said.

The United Way of Central Alabama took over operation of the local Meals on Wheels program in 2016, Wright said, after the program had financial difficulties. United Way has since worked to stabilize the program and put it on good financial footing, working with a number of partners like the Senior Center, to facilitate the meal delivery.

They have also worked on reducing the waitlist of potential candidates, which included 3,000 people in 2016, Wright said. That number is now closer to 200 people.

“We are really excited about that so we can not have [a waitlist] ever again,” she said.

There are some Homewood residents on that waitlist. Wright said the waitlist is caused by the need to screen applicants for eligibility and for more volunteers to fill routes. The assessment includes whether seniors need prescription assistance or another Area Agency on Aging service.

Homewood’s existing routes do need a few more volunteers each month. Meals on Wheels tries to make volunteering as easy as possible, Wright said, and most routes only take about an hour to deliver.

“[It’s] half a day out of your life, and it means a lot,” Fletcher said.

Anyone older than 21 interested in delivering a meal route can contact volunteer@uwca.org for an application and more details about the process.

Meals on Wheels Central Alabama is open to Jefferson County residents age 60 and older who are homebound, with no income requirement. If you or someone you know is in need of meal delivery, call 205-592-0413 or visit mowjeffco.org