Meals on Wheels keeps rolling with community help
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 23, 2017 5:50 AM
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Alan Hamilton, left, and Karla Carter of Family of Faith Church delivered 325 bags this week to WAGES, filled with everything needed for a complete Thanksgiving dinner for Meals on Wheels participants.
The Meals on Wheels office will close for the holidays, but that doesn't mean its clients have to go hungry.
The community can be part of ensuring that, by picking up an extra item or two on that next grocery run.
WAGES, or Wayne Action Group for Economic Solvency, oversees the Meals on Wheels program, providing a daily meal for approximately 350 recipients who rely on the staples and social interaction.
But like other agencies, the office shuts down for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Take this week, for example -- the office is closed for a long weekend, from today through Sunday.
A local church has taken on the project to provide for the clientele, said Brownie Doss, WAGES director of older adult services.
"Family of Faith Church, which is a very small church, they bring Thanksgiving meals for all of our seniors," Doss said. "They have everything they'll need for Thanksgiving and they usually bring things for breakfast, too.
"A lot of people do have family that are going to do things for them during the holidays but there are some that don't -- they're really depending on that meal. This will give them some extra food."
A similar thing will occur next month when Christmas rolls around.
"We'll be closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec. 25-27), and that's after being closed Saturday and Sunday, so it will actually be five days in a row," Doss said.
Fortunately, Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices McMillen and Associates Realty has spearheaded a communitywide drive that began a few years ago.
"Berkshire Hathaway has kind of adopted us for several years," she said of the real estate agency on Berkeley Blvd.
Danny Southerland, then a broker agent, was also a Meals on Wheels volunteer, said Sue Howell from that office.
Southerland became very attached to the program, she said, especially when he learned it shut down for a few days around the holidays. He helped launch an effort through the business to elicit donations to help offset the lag time.
"When he moved to Maryland, he wanted to make sure it continued and was afraid we were going to drop the program, but we absolutely would not because it's very important for this to carry on through the holidays," Howell said.
It's easy enough to support the effort, by picking up some non-perishables. Berkshire Hathaway is the dropoff point, at 1004 N. Berkeley Blvd.
Suggested items being requested are pop-top canned vegetable soup or beef stew, Vienna sausage, potted meat and fruits; individual packages of raisins, hot chocolate, crackers and four- to six-ounce cans of fruit juice; individually wrapped cookies, candies and candy canes.
Deadline for donations is Dec. 15, Howell said.
"We're going to be taking food until Dec. 15 and then deliver it to Brownie that afternoon," she said. "Boy Scouts will help pack up the boxes."
Monetary donations are also important, she added.
"We do need to get $2,000 in cash to supplement it to make it successful," she said. "It buys supplemental things and fills in where needed to make sure everyone gets the same amount."