Paying It Forward with Meals on Wheels

At SourcePoint’s volunteer appreciation dinner in April, Bob and Sue Postle, pictured at right, were recognized for reaching the milestone of 20 years of service as Meals on Wheels drivers. Sue had discovered the value of the home delivered meal service during her 16 years as a caregiver for two relatives. “Meals on Wheels volunteers made my life so much easier; I couldn’t have gotten by without it.” While 20 years is a long time to return a favor, the Postles recognized they may be paying it both backwards and forwards.

According to Meals on Wheels America, the membership organization that supports senior meal programs, the fastest growing segment of the population in America is the 85+ age group, and the number of citizens over age 60 is projected to double in coming decades. The national Meals on Wheels program’s 2-million-strong volunteer pool is not adequate to meet growth in many communities—including Delaware County.

SourcePoint’s Meals on Wheels never missed a beat during the pandemic and in 2022, both its home-delivered meals and community cafe programs grew by 20%. In 2023, growth through April was up 17% over 2022. “We are serving more clients than ever,” says Karen Pillion, SourcePoint’s nutrition program administrator. “Which means our routes are growing and the only way we have to control route growth is by dividing them into smaller routes.”

In the last year, four new meal routes were created after dividing existing routes, two in southern Delaware County and two in Sunbury. Each new route requires at least five new volunteers. “We would like to divide more routes, but we can’t until we have more volunteers,” said Karen. Increasing populations bring with them increased traffic, further complicating the creation of manageable meal routes. “We want to give the volunteer the best possible experience, and that means making sure routes are both a reasonable distance and timeframe.”

One Meals on Wheels volunteer, Carol Rohde, knows about paying it forward. She and her husband, Bob Backus, had been delivering meals for about 10 years when they suffered simultaneous health crises. For a short period, they became meal recipients instead of meal deliverers. “I couldn’t have gotten through that time without the help of other volunteers.

Having been a meal driver, I knew how valuable the service would be for us during that time.” Once the couple regained their health, they were back on the road, delivering meals to their beloved senior clients on their meandering countryside route.

Volunteers deliver a hot lunch, an optional cold dinner, provide a safety check, and a friendly greeting to homebound seniors. Most routes pick up and drop off at SourcePoint, except for Sunbury routes, which have the option of picking up/dropping off at Rainbow Place Apartments. While no client has ever missed a meal due to lack of volunteers, staff frequently step in to cover meal routes when a volunteer calls off with short notice. Volunteers needing to cancel their scheduled service just leave word of the dates they will be away and staff members handle finding a substitute. Meal drivers are also offered mileage reimbursement at a rate of $0.66 per mile for their route to offset the cost of volunteering.

SourcePoint is more than just the start and end point for volunteer meal drivers. The facility houses a commercial kitchen where meals are handcrafted by chefs and packed by volunteers. Seven volunteers per day volunteer once a week, Monday through Friday from 7 to 11 a.m., packing 800 meals into trays.

Meanwhile, SourcePoint’s on-site lunch spot, Cafe 55, has seen growth from serving an average of 111 diners a day pre-pandemic to 150 diners post-pandemic; an indicator that the cafe’s focus on improving the dining experience by adding made-to-order salads, beverage service, fresher food, prepackaged silverware, and more menu options has been a success. Volunteers provide customer service in the cafe in two-hour shifts between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“There would be no home-delivered meals for local seniors or community cafes to combat isolation without our volunteers.” Karen Pillion said. “The success of SourcePoint’s Meals on Wheels program is on the shoulders of our community members to step up and pay it forward.”

We are all growing older or, after all, at least love someone who is.

For information about volunteering as a meal driver, meal packer, or cafe host, contact SourcePoint’s volunteer recruiter, Jill Smith at 740-203-2368 or jill.smith@MySourcePoint.org