Orford
She knows the way without a GPS, just as she knows the 12 senior citizens at the 11 different homes she visits each Tuesday with a nutritious meal.
“One important benefit of this — and they would tell you themselves — that it’s the only time they see a person,” Green said last Tuesday while driving her route. “In addition to a meal, they have a visitor they can talk to. The driver gets as much satisfaction out of it as the person delivering the meal.”
Green, of Orford, is one of hundreds of Meals on Wheels volunteer drivers in the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council coverage area and one of the approximately two million volunteers nationwide. She is also one of the three-quarters of volunteers who are of retirement age, which the national Meals on Wheels organization defines as age 55 and older.
And while Green — who wryly described her age as “old enough” when asked — isn’t near retiring from the volunteer post she’s held since the early 2000s, other older volunteers are. And the younger generation is not stepping up to fill those slots for a variety of reasons, leading to a growing need for drivers, particularly for the more rural routes such as the one Green does each week.
“Those people up in Orford are amazing,” said Roberta Berner, executive director of the senior citizens council “They’re just willing to do whatever it takes.”
While volunteers may age out of volunteer driving, they can continue to help in other ways. They can go along with another driver on a route or help package meals prior to delivery.
“We like to have two people per route,” Berner said. “That’s optimal, but it isn’t always feasible.”
About 500 meals per day are delivered by people on 29 routes, Berner said, and the council ends up providing about 130,000 meals over the course of 250 days per year. There are occasional snow days if the roads are deemed unsafe.
“Orford is our smallest program, but obviously the service is much needed,” Berner said.
Seeing Green’s route firsthand made that need even more apparent. It took her about 2½ hours over 57 miles to make her deliveries.
“Of course if you don’t visit, you’d move right along,” she said.
But Green always stops to visit, particularly in the colder and muddier months when it’s more difficult for clients to leave homes and socialize.
Her route changes depending on the need: Sometimes people sign up for the meals on a short-term basis, to help them through recovery from an illness or surgery “until they can resume their independence,” Green said.
Others use the service for years. Many recipients live alone, often because their spouses have died.
Some of the roads and driveways Green navigates are icy and treacherous this time of year. The senior citizens council received a grant to provide drivers with strap on shoe spikes.
“I’m glad I put them on today,” Green remarked after walking a particularly icy path.
Green tries to stick to the same delivery order each week.
“Folks get used to around the time you’re coming,” she explained.
At one home, a man asked her if she could stay for a game of cribbage (she couldn’t, she had more stops to make), but she started wracking her mind for the names of friends who know how to play and might visit him for an afternoon.
At another stop, a woman’s dog ran out to greet Green.
“Are you supposed to be out and about like this?” she asked in a singsong voice, as she helped lead the dog back through a gate.
At yet another, she stays inside more than 10 minutes as a recipient tells her about all the animals she has seen in her backyard. She checks mailboxes so that she can also bring in the mail along with the meal and inquires after recipients’ health.
“Friendships evolve between the person receiving the meal and the volunteer,” Green said. “I like to get out and meet people and give them some support, if that’s what they’d like to have. What goes around comes around. There may be a day I need the same thing.”
Recruiting New Volunteers
While it’s hard to pin down a singular reason for the challenges recruiting volunteers, one has to do with the time of day makes it difficult for those who work a typical 9-to-5 to participate.
“We’re seeing more and more businesses and companies stepping up to adopt a weekly or monthly route,” said Jenny Bertolette Young, vice president of communications for Meals on Wheels America.
One Upper Valley business doing so is Hypertherm.
“I’m really excited about this. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years,” said Stacey Chiocchio, community citizenship manager at Hypertherm. The company has six employees who, in teams of two, will cover a weekly Monday Meals on Wheels shift out of the Upper Valley Senior Center in Lebanon.
While Hypertherm has a reputation for volunteering for community projects, “Meals on Wheels was one of the areas where we didn’t have as many associates who were open to committing to a recurring spot.”
By breaking it up among six employees, there will be flexibility for everyone to paricipate.
“I think it’s a good model,” Chiocchio said. “I’m hoping that more people will try it.”
Editor’s note: To become a volunteer for Meals on Wheels, call 603-448-4897. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
