Commonwealth Republican Women Deliver Meals on Wheels

The Commonwealth Republican Women’s Club (CRWC) was well represented at the special holiday delivery of Meals on Wheels Memorial Day Monday, May 30, 2011.

CRWC members (and helpers) Jane Ring, Michelle Thissell, Gail Ledwig, Marianne and Buck Coates, Michelle Marsten and her daughter, and Linda Greenberg teamed up as drivers and runners to bring hot and tasty meals to homebound senior citizens.

Volunteers met in the parking lot of Grace Episcopal Church on Russell Road at 10 a.m..  Here we were given our routes, delivery instructions, and examples of problems we might experience and how to solve them.  As a new volunteer I was impressed with the orientation.  How did this program work?

I learned from Nancy McCormick, Program Manager, Alexandria Meals on Wheels, that prior to 1974 churches were the usual providers of food and care to the homebound elderly.  Then, in 1974, Ted Kennedy set up a national program with federal funding to replace the ad hoc system.  There are two criteria for participation:  recipients have to be 60 and over and homebound.  There is no economic criterion. 

Each senior receives two meals a day, a lunch and hot dinner, prepared five days a week at a central facility. In Alexandria, the facility is the Hermitage (a continuing care retirement facility). Volunteers deliver the meals to the homebound.  Volunteer recruitment is ongoing and rewarding.

Since 2005, Meals on Wheels has been administered under the Alexandria Senior Services Program, at 700 Princess Street.  Nancy McCormick, there since January 2009, coordinates 250 volunteers a month; they serve 70 seniors.  Nationwide, the program serves about 44,000 people a year.

Now, in addition, through the generous donation by the Ronald M. Bradley Foundation, a special holiday hot meal is provided with dessert and beverage in Alexandria on federal holidays. The caterer is Tasteful Affairs.

For more information about Meals on Wheels please contact Nancy McCormick at :  mealsonwheels@seniorservicesalex.org or for information about the CRWC please contact Michelle Thissell  at mallan421@yahoo.com