Knights and Meals on Wheels

Knights Delivering Meals on Wheels

How can you be the hands and feet of your faith in our parish community?  One way is to be a driver for the Meals on Wheels program in either Duncanville, Cedar Hill, or DeSoto.  These meals contribute to the overall health and well- being of participating seniors, including those with chronic illnesses that are affected by diet, such as heart disease and diabetes, and frail seniors who are homebound.  Without Meals on Wheels these seniors would go hungry.  Five days a week, year around, clients hear that daily knock and the “Meals on Wheels” greeting.  You may be the only person they see that day. In Dallas County. there are many seniors waiting to get on the list of recipients of Meals on Wheels; but alas there are enough delivery drivers.

Typically, a Meals on Wheels driver arrives as the meals drop-off point around 10am each day.  Each driver is assigned a route number which includes a list and location of each client they are scheduled to deliver that day.  All this information is available on an easy to use app.  Once the driver has picked up his/her meals for the day, they set about delivering them and that’s it.  A driver might deliver once a week or several times a week – the schedule is very flexible.

The Knights of Columbus of this Council are doing their very best to support the seniors in our local communities.  Currently 10 Knights are delivering meals on a regular basis. Dan and Pat Murphy, Steve and Linda Reid, Mike Rumsey, Jack and Juanita Ramsden, Fred Ciarochi, Jim Kowalski, Billy Callender,  Jeff and Frances Miller, Efrain Ochoa and myself have delivered approximately 9,150 meals this past year.  Seems like a lot and yet some days there are not enough drivers and so some needy seniors go without a meal.  Three other Knights have retired from delivering because of life’s circumstances; yet they deserve credit as well.  Thank you Ray Rivera, Roy and Frances Cormier and Ed and Betty O’Brien.  Being a volunteer delivery driver means you give what time you have available and a bit of gas money as well. Fred Ciarochi says” I get just as much out of delivering as my clients”.

If the spirit moves you to help needy seniors in our community log, onto www.vnatexas.org for information on how to become a volunteer delivery driver.  You can also contact me (Allen Reitmeier) at 214-850-3602 and I will fill you in on more details. Perhaps you could even accompany me on a delivery day.