Lately, quite a few people, especially SIUC students, have been asking me if they can help deliver meals to senior adults who are alone on the holidays. For anyone to give up even a small part of their holiday celebration to volunteer to help others is amazing to me. I don’t get paid to do this either, but money isn’t why I volunteer on holidays.

A few years ago I had a young person help me deliver meals on Christmas morning in Johnson County. I wasn’t familiar with the addresses and my list of names included people who lived in towns I had only just driven through. The young person who volunteered to help me lived in Johnson County and knew where all the people on my delivery list lived.

We drove all over Johnson County that Christmas day delivering meals, and we returned home by about 2 pm. We were both tired, but pleased with the good deed we felt we had done. Everyone of the senior adults on our list were alone at home and eager for a hot holiday meal. I enjoyed their enthusiasm and holiday spirit as I delivered their meals to them.

Many senior adults do not spend the holidays with their family and often do not cook hot meals for themselves, especially festive holiday meals. Almost every business and restaurant is closed. Often, the delivery of a hot meals by one of my volunteers is the only contact some senior adult shut-ins have on holidays.

I’ve said many times that the reason I organize these meals is because of a telephone call I received many years ago when I first started in this business. The concerned daughter on the other end of the phone wanted to know if her mom could get meals delivered on weekends and holidays, but the senior center was closed.

"What is my mom expected to do for a meal if you’re closed?" the caller wanted to know. I wasn’t sure how to answer her. There wasn’t enough money to hire staff to work weekends and holidays and there still isn’t enough.

But, challenges like this one are what made me stay in the senior adult business. I still haven’t obtained the funding for weekend meal services, but I have receive help to provide meals on holidays from United Way.

For over a decade, the United Way and other donations have helped to provide delivered meals to homebound senior adults on major holidays. The last two years we delivered hot meals in all thirteen of the counties I work with. But, its the help of the volunteers, as well as the donations from the United Way, which makes it all possible.

"Thanks for helping an old lady out," one senior adult told me once. "I don’t know what I’d do without this hot meal." It’s another lesson learned.

###

Return to Lessons Learned