Caring for My Community

My commitment to Senior Living

Did you read that Meals on Wheels delivers to Senior Living Facilities?

It is so important to me to stay involved in the community and to help others.

I have been involved with Meals on Wheels, or more specifically Aging Matters, for a couple years now. Aging Matters' mission is to provide assistance to aging citizens in the community and ensure they have the opportunity to live healthy, safe and independent lives. My particular route delivers meals to the elderly who are unable to cook for themselves anymore. We deliver to senior homes, as well as senior living facilities.

I recently had the privilege to go behind the scenes with some of my co-workers from Realty World Curri Properties and work in the community kitchen that makes this organization successful. When we arrived, we were greeted by all of the volunteers and kitchen staff that prepared us for our work load. We washed hands, put on aprons and gloves, and headed into the kitchen.

The kitchen has state of the art machinery that is used to prepare and cook all of the meals. Some appliances are as old as 1976, while other equipment, like the stoves, have been newly updated.

The kitchen uses only fresh foods, following specific dietary guidelines to ensure our recipients are eating whole grains and foods that maintain a healthy meal plan. Ideally, the goal is to feed our seniors more vegetables, grains and dairy, rather than other starches that don't hold the best nutritional values. All food is cooked daily and recipes have been perfected to a science so that way no food goes to waste. The CEO, Tom Kammerdener has been nicknamed "el cheapo" because of his strong belief of "Nothing goes to waste". To prove that, he shows us a door that was removed from an old freezer that was used to replace the door of another freezer that was in need of a new one.  With a little elbow grease and much determination, he was able to refurbish the door to eliminate the cost of a new one and hang the door upside down to maintain the “flow of the kitchen.”

The meal that was planned for that day was fish, rice, carrots, a roll and a brownie. In an assembly line fashion, we began with Arnie (the kitchen's longest volunteer) distributing recycled paper trays down the line to begin packing with cooked food items. We worked as a team and had to be consistent and in sync with each other, communicating to make our time effective before meals were to be sent out for delivery.

In the background, there was still more teamwork involved. Volunteers were sealing these trays with plastic wrap, packing them into thermal bags for delivery and loading them onto trucks. They were also prepping foods for the next day, washing all of the utensils and tools used to cook, cleaning floors to prevent slip hazards, replenishing cooked food when our line had run out of something, and also getting things ready for the next shift of meals to prep. 

There are so many different positions needing to be filled daily. If you are interested in learning more about ways to get involved, you can reach out to me for more info (321)794-4817 or visit their website.

Some of the programs that are available to join are:

Meals on Wheels, Sunflower House, Seniors at Lunch, The Kitchen, Housing Improvements, etc