Meals on Wheels serves Thanksgiving at senior center

IOWA CITY - Sisters Mary Knoles and Janice Childress weren't going to miss the chance to spend Thanksgiving with their mother Barbara Ritchey.

So the Texas residents took the 12-hour drive to Iowa City to spend the holiday with their mother, an Ecumenical Tower resident, at the attached Senior Center's annual Thanksgiving meal.

'I think what they're doing here is just awesome,” Knoles said.

Ritchey's sister-in-law Shirley also joined the family for dinner and praised the volunteers serving the bounty.

'They're all volunteers, that's the wonderful thing,” she said.

With turkey, gravy, pumpkin pie and green bean casserole to name a few items on the menu, Thursday's meal included all the staples that make up any Thanksgiving dinner.

'We try to make the meal as close to a traditional holiday meal as we can,” said Sandy Andreasen Elder Services marketing coordinator. 'To give them that experience and help fill that spot.”

Coralville Mayor John Lundell, member of the Coralville Optimists Club, said the group has served Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at the senior center for decades now to give Elder Services volunteers the holidays off. The event has even become a Lundell family tradition.

'We're here to provide a service and this is one of those opportunities that has been kind of trademark of our club,” Lundell said. 'It's just very enjoyable.”

Elder Services produces about 500 meals daily at the group's kitchen at Jefferson Point in North Liberty. A team of close to 80 volunteers deliver meals to homebound seniors while the remainder are served at various sites including the Iowa City Senior Center, Elderberry Cafe East in Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Pathways Adult Day Health Center, Riverside's senior dining site and Emerson Point Assisted Living Facility.

According to the Elder Services annual report for fiscal year 2013, the center's nutrition program served meals to 879 people while the Meals on Wheels program delivered more than 114,000 meals to homebound clients. That marked a 28 percent increase from the roughly 89,000 meals delivered the year before.

As with the congregate site, volunteer drivers were out in full force Thursday to deliver meals, Andreasen said.

'Our volunteers are critical to the delivery system, there's a definite need on an ongoing basis,” she said. 'The biggest need is for those drivers who can commit to doing it regularly.”

While the meal delivery is the main purpose of the Meals on Wheels program, Andreasen said it serves a different, equally important purpose.

'Delivering that smile along with the meal and knowing that there's that face to face communication, which is as vital as the food they're delivering,” Andreasen said.