Homebound citizens get a daily hot meal delivered each weekday by friendly volunteers
Plant City resident Lee Maguire used to enjoy driving from house to house with Meals on Wheels, dropping off a hot, nutritious meal to senior residents who can’t shop or cook for themselves. She’d been a volunteer with the organization for ten years and found a lot satisfaction in the service she provided to the community.
“It was the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” said Maguire.
A visit to her eye doctor two years ago changed everything. Maguire, then 88-years-old, was diagnosed with macular degeneration. She was told it wasn’t safe for her to drive anymore, which also meant giving up her precious delivery route. “It was so awful because I had to sell my car,” she said.
With no transportation, and with little desire to cook anyway, Maguire went from a Meals on Wheels volunteer to one of its recipients. “I just called up Sharon McKendrick, the office manager, and asked to be added to the list,” she said. “I really appreciate the meals and don’t know what I’d do without them.”
FishHawk resident Lauren Lee, another volunteer with the organization, delivers a meal to Maguire on Mondays. This week’s meal was chicken and dumplings with mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, a dinner roll and a slice of pie.
Lee said it’s the perfect way for her to help others. Her husband is a retired officer with a degree in Political Science. “I really love that I don’t have to care about anyone’s politics,” she said. “I just feed them.”
Meals on Wheels, a nonprofit, nondenominational corporation, has been serving meals to Plant City’s homebound residents for 32 years. Its volunteers deliver food to 40 recipients on seven routes throughout the city. Hot meals are purchased from Winn Dixie, where employees prepare the meals in the deli every weekday.
Store manager Curt Rotrock said one team member comes in at 5 a.m. to prepare the meals. “Her main focus every day is making sure she knocks out all the meals, preparing them and putting them in disposable containers and putting them in a cooler with an ice pack,” he said. She does her best to make sure each participant gets a meal that adheres to any dietary restrictions. The menu varies each day, from beef stew to ham to chicken dishes.
Each meal costs Meals on Wheels $6.25, $5 of which they pass on to meal recipients on a sliding scale based on what they can afford to pay. In addition to recipient contributions, the organization also receives funding from contributions from members of the business community and service organizations and from Unity in the Community. “One of Meals on Wheels’ original agents, Nancy Barnett, who’s been living in Atlanta for years, still sends us a monthly donation,” said McKendrick.
“Support from the community through donations as well as volunteer drivers is critical to our success,” said Meals on Wheels of Plant City President George Newman.
For more information about signing up for the meal service or volunteering, call (813) 754-9932.
