WAGES seeking donations of food and money to help seniors
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on December 6, 2015 3:05 AM
The Wayne Action Group for Economic Solvency is calling for donations -- both edible and monetary -- to help the senior citizens they serve to power through the holidays.
WAGES will be packing 500 bags of food on Dec. 17 and 18 to deliver on their Meals on Wheels volunteer's routes on Dec. 21 and 22.
Donations to the cause are due by Dec. 16.
The group is off to a good start, but is calling on the generous citizens of Wayne County to help.
"For a lot of our senior citizens this is really the only nutritious thing they get," said Brownie Doss, director of older adult services for WAGES. "Some have no families, so that will make it difficult over the holidays also."
Wilma Childs donated $500 to the cause in memory of her husband, Jim, who died during the last year, and in honor of her grandson, Taylor. Jim and Wilma volunteered for Meals on Wheels for 25 years before his death, and have made an annual gift each year. Donations of money are accepted, as are food donations to pack the food bags with.
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services-McMillen Real Estate Group is spearheading the effort to collect goods and donations for WAGES' Christmas bags.
WAGES will be closed and Meals on Wheels will not be operating the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and weekend surrounding the Christmas holiday.
That means no deliveries and no visits from volunteers, making this food drive extra critical to ensure the elderly of Wayne County don't go hungry during the holidays.
"It's very, very important that our senior citizens have meals delivered to them," Mrs. Doss said. "We say it's a meal and much more. The food is very important, but our volunteers also check on them when they deliver the food. Those visits won't happen during the holidays."
Volunteers delivering meals have, quite literally, saved lives before.
"We've found several people that had fallen and had no help and may not have had help if we hadn't checked on them," Mrs. Doss said. "It provides them with human contact. One of the people we deliver to told us one time, 'When I see someone walking up my sidewalk, I know somebody cares about me."
Mrs. Doss said the operation takes approximately 40 to 50 volunteers per day to run, and that they have about 1,500 rotating volunteers per year.
"This is about Christmas cheer and giving them extra food for the holidays," Mrs. Doss said.
WAGES will be accepting the following items for their bags they will be distributing:
* Pop-top canned vegetable soup or beef stew.
* Pop-top cans of Vienna sausage.
* Pop-top cans of potted meat.
* Pop-top or other individually packaged items, such as plastic cups of fruit, peaches, pears, fruit cocktails and more.
* Individual boxes of raisins.
* Individual packages of hot chocolate cans (4 to 6 ounces) or other containers of fruit juice.
* Individual packages of crackers such as nabs or saltines.
* Individually wrapped cookies.
* Individually wrapped candies or candy canes.