Meals on Wheels needs more volunteers
The Habersham County Senior Center’s Meals on Wheels program is searching for more volunteers after staffing shortages have arisen in the past few months.
Currently, the Meals on Wheels program has 30 volunteers, with six routes for hot meals to tackle five days each week.
“We need more volunteers because the volunteers we do have are totally devoted, and they do a great job, but we have very few of them, and so if they’re ever out or if there’s ever a need for somebody to take their place, if they go on vacation or they’re sick or anything, we end up not having anyone to deliver,” Meals on Wheels Program Specialist and renowned Chef Inger Smith said. “We’re just always looking for people who are willing to give their time to deliver on a regular basis.”
Currently, the Habersham County Senior Center feeds around 200 people five days a week, sometimes over 50,000 meals yearly, not including bag lunches and shelf-safe meals for holidays and weekends.
“For some of our clients, this meal is the only one they get each day,” Senior Center Director Kathy Holcomb said. “We sometimes get calls from people asking if we are coming or not, even if we’re only 30 minutes behind. Somebody needs to advocate for us to make sure that senior citizens are getting fed every day.”
Each meal route takes approximately an hour to deliver hot meals to Habersham’s senior population who do not get meals inside the senior center.
“We have six routes, and I would say we have about five people that take each route, but generally, they’ll take one route each week,” Smith said. “They use their own cars and their own gas, and we can’t really ask them to do more than that, but a lot of them do.”
Smith said she has one volunteer who continuously goes above and beyond for the Meals on Wheels program.
“I’ve got one guy who takes two routes a day now, and he does it four out of five days,” Smith said. “We’re having a volunteer appreciation lunch on the fourth, and he’s going to be my Meals on Wheels poster child because he will take everything, and I can call him at the last minute, and he’s amazing.”
The Meals on Wheels program is in danger of running out of funds this month. To combat this, the Senior Center is hosting a benefit gala to raise funds for the Meals on Wheels program and the Senior Center as a whole.
“We are hoping to have at least 200 people to raise money because we always run out of money in
March, like we will run out of money, completely, near the end of the month for the meal program,” said Smith.
Local restaurants, including Holden Oversoul, Arrows Farm, Chick-fil-A and Thick and Sweet Baking Co., will have tables to serve food at the event. Chef Smith will also have a grazing table prepared for the event.
The “Stars of the Silver Screen” themed gala event will be Thursday, May 1, from 5-7:30 p.m. at Habersham Mills and will feature a performance from country music artist Katie Deal and North Georgia Technical College’s Photography Program photo booth.
Tickets to the event are $100, and the Senior Center is still looking for corporate sponsors.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 706-839-0260.
The Habersham County Senior Center is also doing a fundraising car show on May 10 at the Habersham County Fairgrounds. Awards for Best Engine Bay, Best Paint/Graphics, Best Interior, an Eddy Bear Foundation Pick, People’s Choice, Kids’ Choice and Best of Show will be given to respective winners at the show.
“I want to use the gifts that I’ve been given to help address the issue of us not having enough funds. I am grateful for this opportunity to do something meaningful,” Smith said.