New Meals on Wheels vehicle will help streamline food deliveries to seniors

A new specially designed delivery van, likely the first of its kind in South Carolina, is about to help streamline meal deliveries to seniors in need in Richland County.

A $50,000 grant from Walmart has purchased a temperature-controlled meal delivery van for Senior Resources’ Meals on Wheels program. It will allow both hot and frozen meals to be carried in one trip, making cross-county deliveries more efficient.

That’s good news for the program that serves hundreds of area seniors, such as Sandra Welborn.

“I appreciate it very much,” she said to a pair who delivered her meal of Salisbury steak, broccoli, potatoes, bread and milk on Tuesday. “Thank you very much for taking the time to come and see me, to make sure I’m all right.”

For about three years, 57-year-old Welborn has received daily meals from volunteers who visit her Columbia home.

“If I didn’t have this program, I don’t know what I would do every day,” Welborn said. “I’m happy to see whoever comes, because when they bring my meal for the day, that might be the only thing I eat for the day.”

Welborn is one of about 525 people, mostly homebound seniors and some adults with disabilities, who receive meals from the program.

Another 200 or so people are on a waiting list to receive meals. Due to funding restrictions, Meals on Wheels cannot meet the county’s full needs.

“It’s easy to forget about a senior sitting in their home,” said Pam Dukes, executive director of Senior Resources, which provides the Meals on Wheels program. “It is easier to raise money and awareness when you can put something in front of the public that’s cute and fun to see, like puppies or children. Seniors, it’s easy for them to get lost.

“And it’s a basic human need. We all have to eat.”

Volunteers and a few paid drivers deliver the meals in their own vehicles, using thermal bags and coolers to keep the food at safe temperatures. But the delivery system can be inefficient when drivers have to make multiple trips to distribution centers, either at Trenholm United Methodist Church or Westminster Presbyterian Church, to pick up, for instance, a set of frozen meals after a set of hot meals.

The new delivery van will help streamline that process by compartmentalizing hot and cold meals, maintaining temperatures for each, so they can be carried in one trip. As far as Dukes is aware, no other Meals on Wheels program in the state has a similar vehicle.

Established 40 years ago, Senior Resources’ Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit that’s largely funded by the S.C. Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging, along with significant corporate and private donations. Volunteers are the driving force behind the daily meal deliveries, which reach more than 260 clients most days Monday through Friday.

The new van won’t it necessarily increase the number of meals that can be provided, which will still depend on funding availability.

Nor will it necessarily decrease the need for delivery volunteers, such as Michael Sullivan, who will still be counted on to visit clients’ homes, check in on their well-being and develop meaningful relationships with them.

“It’s enabled so many people to stay in their homes who wouldn’t otherwise be able to,” said Sullivan, who has delivered meals about four times a week for the past seven years. “Some of the people, it’s their only contact with somebody else in the course of the day, so it means a great deal to them.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 6:41 PM with the headline "New Meals on Wheels vehicle will help streamline food deliveries to seniors."