Sandy and Del’s Story: Rising by Lifting Others

Meals on Wheels People volunteers, Sandy and Del, have been serving older adults through meal deliveries and making Friendly Chats calls since 2018. Both being retirees with extra time to spare, they sought out ways to contribute their newfound retirement time to benefit the well-being of others.

“We wanted to volunteer somewhere that benefited our local community, so we began looking up options and stumbled upon Meals on Wheels People,” said Sandy. “We visited the central kitchen and decided that meal delivery was a good fit for us.”

Around the time of the pandemic, Sandy and Del decided to stop delivering meals, but still wanted to support older adults in their community. They started making friendly chat calls and wellness check calls instead, and have been at it ever since.

“The calls seem to offer clients a sense of security, but I also think they just appreciate knowing that someone cares,” explained Del. “There are a lot of lonely people out there with nothing but the television to keep them company, so it puts me at ease to know I can offer some human interaction.”

There are a number of ways to get involved with MOWP, whether in-person or virtually. While volunteering supports the community, the time dedicated is returned to you in the form of feeling good about giving back. Just take it from Del and Sandy who explained “Volunteering makes us feel good about ourselves, too! It gives you a good feeling to know that you’re helping someone, which makes the community all the more strong”.