Meals on Wheels: Volunteers serve daily lunches, friendship

'It's more than just a meal."

That's what folks who deliver for the tri-county area's largest provider of Meals on Wheels say about the program that offers some 500 nutritious in-home meals Monday-Friday to eligible seniors.

Based at 259 Meeting St., Charleston Area Senior Citizens Inc. operates many programs, including Meals on Wheels of Greater Charleston, which last year delivered 126,560 hot lunches to residents in downtown Charleston, the North Area, West Ashley and the Sea Islands. Volunteers and staffers take meals as far as Edisto Island, Executive Director Sandy Clair said.

The organization uses more than 100 volunteers and 11 paid drivers to ensure that low-income seniors who are homebound or have moderate to severe dementia get healthy meals year-round, Clair said. She said many seniors are unable to shop for food or prepare meals for themselves. About 75 percent of the Meals on Wheels clients live alone, many of them lacking family or friends who can serve them meals or even check on them, she said.

She said many clients' only contact with the outside world is the Meals on Wheels delivery personnel, who are trained to notice and report any advancing health problems or other issues seen in the homes they visit.

"They are meal deliverers and caregivers. It's a quick check, but for many of our clients, this is the only person they are going to see all day," Clair said.

Charleston Area Senior Citizens was founded in 1967, and while it's not the area's only Meals on Wheels provider, it's the only one receiving state and local funding in addition to donations. The cities of North Charleston and Charleston and the Charleston County government provide funds and/or facilities. Clair said the organization works with the Lowcountry Food Bank and other area services for the disadvantaged.

The agency receives a grant that provides a small number of its clients with weekly packages holding seven days of food, Clair said. Those clients would not eat at all on weekends without the service, she said.

Clair said the organization also maintains a foster grandparents program, subsidized housing, outreach, case management, in-home care and emergency services, plus a "shop for free" grocery store for eligible seniors. But, she said, the agency may be best known for Meals on Wheels.

Clair, who has been with the agency for 12 years, said that over the years, drivers have been the first to report many clients' failing health, overnight falls and injuries, and even a home invasion robbery that happened two years ago.

She cited delivery driver Ray Jones of North Charleston as one who has developed enduring relationships with people on his East Side route in Charleston. Jones visits clients on his own time and has replaced their burned-out light bulbs, fixed their plumbing "and tended to fire ants in the yard," Clair said.

Jones, a Navy retiree who has driven for Meals on Wheels for 14 years, said he became involved with the program because, "I wanted to do something other than sit around."

He made a phone call, "and they said come on down. I started working the very next morning."

Jones and retired teacher Earl German of West Ashley delivered meals together last week. The two men took turns leaving the van with sealed dishes containing sausage, collard greens and whipped sweet potato, plus milk and cornbread.

Jones said that although stops at each home are brief, he's come to know people on his route very well. He said he looks for telltale signs of health problems, including clients seemingly with less energy than usual or who haven't changed their clothes in a while. Situations often call for notifying a client's friend or a family member, or contacting health or other authorities, he said.

Clair said that because funding is limited, Meals on Wheels can't serve all who need it and meet guidelines. The agency gets 15-20 referrals for new clients each week, mostly from medical and social workers, hospices, families and friends, but has a prioritized waiting list several years long, she said.

"There are 300 or 400 more people we could serve" if funding provided for it, Clair said.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at 937-5560.