Meals on Wheels looking for extra help
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 8, 2013 1:50 AM
WAGES is asking for the community's help in assembling 500 bags of shelf-staple foods and goodies for nutrition program participants for Christmas.
For the second year, Prudential The McMillen Real Estate Group has taken on the effort as a company project.
The nutrition program will be closed three days for Christmas, Dec. 24-26. The bags are especially for people with no family, but are sent to everyone served by Meals on Wheels, said Brownie Doss, WAGES nutrition program administrator.
Items should be anything that is easy to open, Mrs. Doss said.
The items needed for the bags are:
* Pop-top canned vegetable soup or beef stew, Vienna sausage, potted meat or other individually packaged (such as plastic cups) of fruit (peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, etc.)
* Individual boxes of raisins
* Individual packages of hot chocolate
* Individual cans (4 to 6 ounces) or other containers of fruit or vegetable juice
* Individual packages of crackers such as Nabs or saltines
* Individually wrapped cookies, wrapped candies or candy canes.
"We have been doing this for many years," Mrs. Doss said. "We send them bags full of shelf-staple items like crackers, fresh fruits. We usually put in things, too, like a can of Ensure. There are some people who don't have family at all and are dependent on these meals."
However, people do not have much time to contribute to the cause.
"We need to have everything in by the 13th just to give us time to get organized and packed," Mrs. Doss said.
The Goldsboro Youth Council will help pack the bags on Dec. 18, with the deliveries scheduled to start on Dec. 19.
In addition to the food items, donors can also make monetary contributions.
"If they had rather donate money, we go buy what we need to fill 500 bags," she said. "It is a lot. It is kind of overwhelming when you are packing them."
Budget cuts have left WAGES with less funding in which to meet more demand, she said.
Danny Southerland of Prudential The McMillen Real Estate Group is a Meals on Wheels volunteer through his church, New Hope Friends.
Southerland saw the need and asked Mrs. Doss what the people who received the meals did while the program was closed for the holidays.
She told him about the bag program.
"When I found out the need through Brownie, I thought it would be a good thing to help," Southerland said. "We just took it on as a project. We have sent out brochures to attorneys and people we are affiliated with to see if we can get support."
Receiving the donation will help the Meals on Wheels budget, too.
"It is nice to have someone take on this project so that we can use our funds for the meals," she said. "It is wonderful that they want to do that."
Donations may be taken to WAGES, 601 Royall Ave., or to Prudential The McMillen Real Estate Group, 1004 N. Berkeley Blvd. Checks should be made payable to WAGES.
"If they need us to pick up something for them, I don't mind going to pick it up," Southerland said.
For more information contact WAGES at 919-734-1178 or Southerland at 919-778-9500 or 919-394-7216.