Growing from 13 to 45 clients, Meals on Wheels is scrambling to keep up with increasing demand over the last year.
Meals on Wheels is a service provided by the Prince George Council of Seniors that delivers meals to all ages, including the elderly, those who are home-bound, post-operative or disabled.
Meals are made fresh every morning Monday to Friday at the P.G. & District Seniors Activity Centre at 425 Brunswick St. and delivered to clients before noon.
Meals include a main course, soup or salad, bread and dessert. Tuesday's meal was chicken souvlaki, rice and mixed vegetables, with a choice of cream of potato or chicken barley soup or Greek salad, homemade bread, and a fruit plate or cookie for dessert.
Graham Haugland, head chef at the seniors activity centre, has 35 years experience, mostly in 1,000-person camps, so putting together 32 meals Monday and 28 meals on Tuesday from scratch for Meals on Wheels clients is quite manageable for him.
Because the service has seen a 300 per cent increase recently, however, more volunteer drivers are needed to meet demand.
Alex Schare, coordinator of the program, said he needs as many as 10 more volunteers added to the 30 he's already got delivering meals. The commitment is an hour once a week and requires the volunteer to have a valid driver's licence, a reliable car and willing to undergo a criminal record check.
"I have my guardian angels who are on standby when volunteers go on vacation or get sick," Schare said.
"And the regular volunteers are fantastic, too, I just need more of them. It's a really great program and we really do make a difference in people's lives."
Some clients are with the program long term, while others are in need of meals for a few weeks before they are placed in a care facility, Schare added.
On the wish list are volunteers willing to go up to College Heights as requests from that area are plentiful. So far the service only extends to the bowl area of Prince George, with recent high demand in the Heritage and Superstore areas of town, Schare added.
On average, 500 meals are provided each month to those requiring the service.
One of the volunteers who delivered some of those meals is Curt Watts, who has been doing the job for the last three years.
He said he was looking for a way to give back to the community on a regular basis and the 45 minutes to one hour he takes every Tuesday to deliver the meals fits well into his schedule. It's not a huge commitment, he added.
"Some of the clients like to chat a bit when you drop off a meal and generally clients are friendly people," Watts said.
"It's very rewarding."
The commitment to access the service is a minimum 10 meals at $6.50 each and Schare said that if a client doesn't like the liver and onions main course that is offered once a month, clients are able to double up on the meal offered the day before to avoid the dish they don't like. Clients are also able to double up so they have meals for weekends, too, and there's a monthly menu planned so clients can see what's for lunch on any given day.
For more information call Schare at 250-564-5888 or [email protected].
