Meals on Wheels San Diego County hosted its 48th Annual South County Volunteer Appreciation Event to celebrate its volunteers that work in delivering meals to local seniors in need on Jan. 22. The festive drive-thru event at Norman Park Center drew around 150 volunteers who received free boxed lunches and cookies provided by members of the Meals on Wheels San Diego County South County Volunteer Advisory Committee.
Meals on Wheels president and CEO Brent Wakefield said the day was meant to celebrate and thank its volunteers for showing up every day and delivering meals to homebound seniors. He said Meals on Wheels is serving seniors, disabled veterans of any age, and their caregivers who are keeping them safe at home. He said without volunteers none of this would be possible.
“The hours that volunteers put in my $7 million yearly operating budget would be a $10.5 million operating budget if I did not have these volunteers,” he said. “So not only is the value of the smile they bring to our clients and the kind interruption of isolation, but it also actually helps the agency get by and do more because of the work they do.”
Wakefield said the organization has a million reasons to thank volunteers, and said he was spending the day with his mask on, sticking his head in car doors and thanking them personally. He said many volunteers have been working on delivering meals for 10 to 30 years, which he described as “unbelievable.”
“But it is kind of a mutual benefit I think,” he said. “Another important thing because probably I’d say over 70% of our volunteers are seniors themselves and retired, and it’s also for them, a reason to get up in the morning. And that is a key issue. So, we’re helping the home bound seniors, but we’re also helping volunteers. They are helping us, and we are helping them get out there and stay connected to the community and be a solution to some of the issues that we have in our community, which is isolation in the pandemic that has been brutal.”
Wakefield said the organization is planning to double the number of people that it serves over the next few years.
“That is pretty audacious,” he said. “If we are serving 2,000 people a day, to get to serve 4,000 people a day means that I am going to need to double the number of volunteers that I have. So, here in South County, we have 320 volunteers, which means I need 640 volunteers.”
Wakefield said it is easy to sign up as a volunteer, and that there is a quick background check with fingerprints.
“That is so we are not sending crazy people to doorsteps,” he said. “We are protecting the seniors as well, but it is brief to sign up. The rest is really easy, and we have an interesting and easy online training portal for them as well.”
Volunteer and board member Susie Leon from Chula Vista said she has volunteered for four years and has now been on the board for over three years. She said that she had to stop delivering due to sciatica, so she was asked to join the board. Leon said with her involvement, her husband Cipriano also began delivering meals.
“He tells me that people are waiting for him outside when he delivers because he takes the time to talk with him,” she said. “Some people do not have any family at all, so they wait for my husband to talk to them. It means a lot to both of us.”
Lunches were provided in part by Barbara White and Betty Torano. White said committing to Meals on Wheels was on her bucket list when she retired and was happy to find out that it was vibrant in Chula Vista.
“It is so win-win,” she said. “I volunteered, and then participated on the Advisory Board and I can always say it is like we give, and they give back.”
