Meals on Wheels America annually serves over 200,000 meals to the Kane and DuPage County areas, including providing food for 300 Naperville seniors. Its services haven’t stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, Meals on Wheels has gone a step further, sending out additional “emergency meals” of shelf-stable and frozen food items.
“To make sure that they have something available in case any duress would come to our infrastructure of our availability to distribute those meals. So we want to make sure that all of the seniors have plenty food available, in case a volunteer can’t get to them one day,” said Marylin Krolak, Executive Director of the DuPage Senior Citizens Council.
Citizens that Care
The food distribution happens at their hub in Lombard, where one group of volunteers organizes supplies, and another loads it into cars to be delivered.
Volunteers do more than just provide meals, they also do wellness check-ins to make sure everyone is staying safe.
“When they get their emergency meals they’re also getting another well-being check. In this time of crisis I think that is probably the most important thing besides food, is making sure that senior is safe in their home,” said Cathy Jordan Volunteer Director of Meals on Wheels in DuPage and Kane County.
Surge of Support
It takes more than just coordination to provide for area seniors. Thankfully, due to a surge in volunteers, the program can continue helping seniors stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
“We had an outpouring of volunteers from all across the two counties and even going into Cook county. And so we have new volunteers,” said Krolak
“It just goes to show you that there’s kindness and community-minded people, who want to do more and to help other people, putting themselves aside.” said Jordan
Naperville News 17’s Ryan Skryd reports.
If you have a story idea or news tip you want to share, we want to hear from you!
