Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels
Cattaraugus County program seeking volunteers to help deliver meals to homebound residents
A valid driver’s license, a vehicle, and an hour a week: that’s all someone needs to make a difference in their local community, according to Kim Connell and Lisa Swaciak of Cattaraugus County’s Meals on Wheels program.
Right now, there is an urgent need for volunteers to help deliver meals to homebound senior citizens throughout the county, especially in the Olean area. Swaciak, who is the home-delivered meal coordinator for the Cattaraugus County Department of the Aging’s Nutrition and Wellness Program explained, “We have 44 routes and 12 different nutrition sites throughout Cattaraugus County. Volunteering an hour a week would make a big difference! If 20 people come and only do an hour a week, that would help tremendously!”
Currently, the program serves an average of 750 meals per day between the congregate sites and the home-delivered meals, and there are approximately 300 volunteers who help distribute these meals. “Primarily, drivers are needed right now, said Swaciak. “We could always use help in some of the congregate settings serving food or to help in the kitchen, but our greatest need is drivers.”
Indeed, the program is run almost entirely through volunteer efforts, as there are only three drivers who are paid employees that transport bulk food to the different congregate settings, where site managers serve the meals. “We depend on volunteers, and we could not do it without them,” said Connell, the nutrition program director for the Department of the Aging.
Volunteer drivers receive a cooler of chilled meals to be delivered along their designated route, and all safety precautions are in place to protect volunteers and clients from COVID-19. While many of the program’s volunteers are retired, Swaciak said there are students who are 16 and older (with valid driver’s licenses) who volunteer, too.
Serving chilled meals rather than hot was a change precipitated by the pandemic, but Swaciak said that it’s beneficial for the program and the clients. “Our routes are getting longer as we get more people, so chilled meals travel much better,” she explained. “A lot of our clients like that they can refrigerate it and save it for later. It’s also a food-safety precaution that we need to put in place, especially in the summer months.”
Swaciak, who has served in her position for the past 12 years, has seen many changes in the program, especially growth. “There are a lot of baby boomers who are now needing meals,” she pointed out. “The pandemic really changed our operations for awhile, too!”
During the spring of 2020, all congregate sites closed, and those clients received home-delivered meals. “For safety reasons, we didn’t allow our volunteers to come back for awhile,” Swaciak explained. “Many of them are senior citizens, themselves, and especially vulnerable to COVID. We had furloughed workers deliver meals - it was so important that our clients, including our homebound clients, could get a meal daily. It was challenging, but we did it; we made it happen.” During those months, a grocery program was temporarily added to the Meals on Wheels service to bring groceries and paper products to homebound clients.
In July 2020, the congregate sites reopened, and operations have returned to a mostly normal state ever since, with the addition of some key services. Connell said, “We try to coordinate as many vaccine appointments to get people vaccinated as soon as possible. The Department of Aging has many, many services that our seniors are definitely able to look into. I don’t think they’re used as much as they could be.”
Meals on Wheels and congregate dining sites are open to Cattaraugus County residents who are 60 and older. Those who would like to receive home-delivered meals should contact the Department of Aging at 716-373-8032 to complete an assessment.
Those who are interested in serving as volunteer drivers or congregate site workers can call 716-373-8032, too. Mileage reimbursement is available for volunteers of any age. “We’re so fortunate to have a great crew and team,” said Swaciak of Meals on Wheels’ volunteers. “We would love to add new volunteers to this group, and their help would make such a tremendous difference.”
To learn more about the Department of the Aging’s nutrition services, visit https://www.cattco.org/aging/services/nutrition-and-wellness-services and follow Cattaraugus County Meals on Wheels on Facebook.