Called on to deliver meals-on-wheels Tuesday

With volunteering you have to decide if it’s worth your time and money. I have volunteered at different places for years but now I choose not to.

For 5 years I made 100 scarves for men, women and children to be given as Xmas gifts at their Xmas dinner at a local soup kitchen. They were laid out on a table so people could choose their own scarf. It cost me $5 per scarf for the yarn. This was 15 years ago. It would take me a year to make them and cost me 500.

If you are becoming resentful maybe you are sick of doing it. It’s okay to quit.
 
At least there's fewer clients than a few weeks ago, but still spread out far & wide. Some go off the list for a while and come back on, some go off and don't return and some just keep getting crossed off, but are still listed on the route. This is a updated map of my Thursday route based on the last delivery (some places are one stop but 2 clients which is the case at B and H) - A is the pick up and return point):

meal route Apr 2024.jpg
 
debodun said:
When I first started doing it back in 2011, there were 6 clients on my route and it took about 30 minutes. Now it's around 14 people, more widely spread out and it takes me about 80 minutes.
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Do you get any breaks or vacations from doing it? It is an awesome thing you are doing, but I'd be burnt out after 13 years and the load becoming heavier.

And nowadays with fresh food and grocery deliveries, it seems like it would be more cost effective for the charity to have UPS deliver a week's worth of frozen dinners each week that the recipients could microwave. Though I suppose the people that sign up might not be used to microwaving their meals. The only person I know who gets meals on wheels is so far behind in technology that she doesn't even have a computer. I felt sad for her when she said her Thanksgiving Day meal wasn't delivered so that she had to open a can and heat up her own food.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
To me her posts sounded like a complaint. She wouldn’t mind except it’s a long route and the agency doesn’t pay volunteers not even for gas.

If it’s charity work and she doesn’t mind, why complain to us?

I didn’t realize meals on wheels dinners were free. When I looked into meals on wheels for my parents, there was a price.
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Yup, they charge for Meals on wheels here, 3 times a week, and the food wasn't fit to eat! We cancelled after the first 3 days. Now mostly we eat fast food.
 
mrstime said:
Yup, they charge for Meals on wheels here, 3 times a week, and the food wasn't fit to eat! We cancelled after the first 3 days. Now mostly we eat fast food.
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Are you in Canada?
May I ask how much you paid for the Meals on Wheels? What type of fast food do you eat?

We rarely eat fast food but years ago when we’d go shopping we sometimes stopped at Wendy’s. My husband would have burgers and I’d have a big salad with chilli. It was good considering it was fast food.
 
Yes In Canada. The charge was about 9 dollars per meal. I find standing to cook so painful that DH doesn't want me to do any, even when the meal is a quick round in the microwave. So we eat Subway, KFC, and a couple of others. I am aware that it is a terrible diet, but he is 86 this month and I am 84 so how much time do we have?
 
Teacher Terry said:
If you are becoming resentful maybe you are sick of doing it. It’s okay to quit.
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Amen to that. I stopped delivering to AIDS patients because the need became less pressing as time went on, plus my children's lives became a lot busier.

One thing I learned from that and other volunteering - once an organization fills an unpaid slot they presume you'll stay forever. That's true of churches, schools, meal delivery, libraries, you name it. We feel horribly guilty saying we're ready to step away, but they always manage to find someone else to pick up the slack.
 
HoneyNut said:
Do you get any breaks or vacations from doing it?
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My usual delivery day is Thursday, but I'm sometimes called to substitute for another driver. There are no deliveries on weekends or Federal holidays. When gas prices started to skyrocket, a lot of the drivers quit so I was doing an average if 3 times a week. There are probably dozens of different routes in the county - each community has it's own route. One time they asked me to do another route. I refused because I'm not familiar with that route and it would take me a long time time to figure out the logistics since I don't know where the addresses are. They won't disclose that info by phone or email so I couldn't work it out.

During the pandemic, they went to delivering a week's worth of food one day a week, but the agency received a lot of complaints from clients saying they didn't have room to store all that food.

If they can't get a fill-in driver, someone from "the office" has to do it. I think that's good for them to do it once in a while so they can see what's going on.
 
In my area MOWs is an income based donation of $4.00 for two meals or $4.50 for two Kosher meals. No one is turned away if they are unable to pay.

One meal is hot and the other is a cold sack meal.

You can select three days a week or five days per week.

They do not deliver on weekends, holidays, or in bad weather.

It’s a great program but IMO the need is limited now that more and more people can purchase groceries and meals for home delivery.

It’s still a huge benefit in rural areas that do not have services like instacart.
 
Volunteer drivers here need to check with the office to request reimbursement for mileage if they want it. There is a $4.00 "suggested" price per meal. I think that is very fair considering the variety and portion servings. One of the requirements are you must be homebound.
 
MOW meals are not free in Australia - not sure what the cost is - but people would otherwise have to pay for their food so I dont think it should be free.
 
I think the MOW service here is about to close up; I got a letter from them asking for donations since some of their government funding has fried up.
Wombat said:
I know a lady who tried Meals on Wheels, she was not impressed. For $5.50 to $7 she could buy a complete frozen meal from the supermarket and have them delivered.
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I think it helps people who don't drive and don't have a supermarket nearby that'll deliver (or can't afford to pay one that will).

I think they're about to stop operating around here; I got a letter asking for donations because some of their gov't. funding has dried up.
 
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