Holidays find Meals On Wheels in dire straits

Cherokee County Meals on Wheels director Terry Dennis helps sort through 3,000 canned goods donated by Gaffney High faculty and students. Despite the large stock, Meals on Wheels is struggling to meet financial needs and find volunteers. As Cherokee County prepares to give thanks, many homebound residents are wondering if they’ll see their Thanksgiving meal at all.

In the midst of a holiday rush and the crushing blow of Hurricane Katrina, Meals on Wheels (MOW) is struggling to meet budget needs and searching for new volunteers.

“Donations are at an alltime low, financially,” said Terry Dennis, MOW director. “We’ve really been in a bit of a lull since Sept. 11, 2001 — but right now because of the hurricane we’re really struggling. On a positive note, we’ve been collecting canned goods to help prepare emergency snowpacks for those who might have difficulty getting food in case of bad weather. With the help of Gaffney High School, we’ve collected 3,000 canned goods to distribute. I want to thank the student senate for leading this donation project and the student body and faculty for their generosity.”

Those canned goods will also be used to help certain clients who sometimes face a difficult choice between food or medicine at the end of the month. The need for volunteers is also high during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, and Dennis said this year is no different.

“We need anyone who can to come and volunteer for two hours to help pack meals for Thanksgiving delivery and prepare some Christmas gifts that we have collected for all of our clients,” she said. “We’re open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. This week, we will be closed Thursday and Friday.”

But the manpower crunch doesn’t end with the holidays.

“Right now we have two routes in Blacksburg that need drivers,” Dennis said. “And we also have four rural routes out in the county — in places like Grassy Pond and Corinth — that need help. The routes are set up so as to take only about a normal lunch hour to complete. And we always try to match volunteers geographically so that people are delivering to their neighbors.”

MOW drivers serve 400 meals a day — for a total of about 12,000 meals each month.

“I do want to thank all of our current volunteers,” Dennis said. “They work very hard and we appreciate them so much. If anyone wants to help take one of these routes, even for just one day a month, they’ll have an orientation period and get to ride along with one of our veteran drivers.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact MOW at 487-2730.