Home-delivered meals program in dire need of volunteers

By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Staying home during the coronavirus pandemic may be good advice, but for some people, staying home also means being cut off from meals and critical health care.
Elderly adults who are confined to their homes and depend on a daily delivered meal rely on volunteers to deliver these meals throughout the community.
Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services Inc. is proof that volunteering in your community is critical.
Established more than 50 years ago and based in Charleroi, SPHS and its affiliates provide human services throughout Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties; serving over 60,000 people annually throughout 60 service locations while employing more than 1,000 professional, clinical, and support personnel.
SPHS Aging Services Home Delivered Meals Program is now seeking volunteers to aid in meal delivery in Donora and Carroll Township.
Volunteers can help daily, once a week, or as often as they would like.
“In that area, we’ve always had the need for volunteers,” said SPHS supervisor Kelly Brown. “Most are all senior citizens and most are home-bound. It’s a way to get meals to them but it’s also a way to check up on them. We relay information to their emergency contacts.”
On average, a total of 80 meals are delivered daily out of the Donora Senior Center and dispersed throughout three routes.
The routes take a little over an hour to complete and generally include one driver and one runner, the person who delivers the meal to the door.
Volunteers are assigned to one of the three routes.
In addition, mileage reimbursement is available for volunteers who drive the routes.
SPHS Aging Services says it takes every precaution to keep both volunteers and consumers safe.
Drivers and runners will not have direct contact with the consumers receiving the meals.
Anyone interested in volunteering in their community to helping neighbors, call Susan Badzik at the SPHS Aging Services Donora Senior Center at 724-379-6446 or email donorasr@sphs.org.

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