Feeding hungry 'gratifying' to agency chief

The toughest thing about being a success is that you have to go on being a success. Expectations do not subside once something is achieved for a week, a month or a year.

But the most rewarding aspect of a job well done is knowing that you have done something valuable, perhaps even instrumental, with your day.

Pat Walker enjoys this feeling on a daily basis.

"It is a different feeling," says Walker, president of East Cooper Meals on Wheels. "Volunteers, when you thank them, will often say, 'It was nothing,' or, 'I got more out of delivering that meal than the person receiving it did.' And we do. To know that people in our community are not hungry is very gratifying.

"Yet you never forget that people who live in the richest nation in the world do go hungry. A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report states that 45 million Americans are food-insecure. I can't even fathom that number. Our most recent statistics on hunger among seniors indicates that there are just over 5 million seniors -- people 60 and over -- who go hungry."

Even in a community as affluent as Mount Pleasant, Walker says the East Cooper agency delivers as many as 365 meals in one day. Fully a third of the group's recipients get two meals. For Christmas, volunteer "elves" will gather, wrap and deliver warmth or comfort-related holiday presents to each of its 240 homebound recipients.

Ramping up

Before the onset of the holidays, East Cooper Meals on Wheels already was sending out 20 percent more meals to seniors and the homebound than the year before. The pace, and the demand, will only increase.

"And last year, we served 27 percent more meals than in 2007, so the growth is exponential," says Walker, a former teacher and counselor who joined ECMOW in 2001 and worked her way up the ranks. "We are pretty much coming apart at the seams in terms of the space needed (to run the operation).

"In this economy, seniors who are trying to live on Social Security and who either don't have pensions or only have modest ones, are absolutely suffering. When it comes to the basic needs of food, shelter and medications, they are having to make difficult choices."

The squadron of 17 volunteer drivers continues to take on extra shifts to deliver food, post-Thanksgiving.

"The extra food we sent out for Thanksgiving also utilized our substitute drivers, and they were delighted to do it."

Walker and her full-time staff of five do have one enormous advantage in that there are about 250 volunteers serving a like number of recipients, a remarkable 1-to-1 ratio. But colleagues credit her with being the driving force.

"Many of our programs go beyond daily nutrition and address quality-of-life issues for our recipients," says Lisa Cottingham, director of recipient services. "These programs exist because of the vision of our president. Pat ... excels in her leadership because she is able to focus on those we serve directly -- the homebound -- as well as on meeting the expectations of the organization's 'owners,' the community."

Hither and yon

Walker was born in 1950 in Fukuoka, Japan, to a Charlestonian father and a mother from Ehrhardt.

Since her dad was an Army officer, she trotted the globe as a youth, living in Pennsylvania, Charleston (during her teenage years), Hawaii, Germany and Virginia. Travel, languages and exploring other cultures remain a passionate pursuit, especially in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Walker attended the College of Charleston, Charleston Southern University and The Citadel, earning master's degrees in reading education and counseling. She taught high school French, English, psychology and world history for two years in Harleyville, taught middle school English and science at Blessed Sacrament here ("It didn't take me long to learn that all 13-year-olds are 'schizophrenic.' "), and both taught English and counseled students at Bishop England High School.

A "people person" personified, that the retired teacher should have gravitated from one helping profession to another seems almost preordained. She was encouraged to consider joining East Cooper Meals on Wheels by friend Leslie DeWitt, then-executive director of the agency.

"My desire to help make a difference is probably deeper now than it's ever been. I see being with Meals on Wheels is a gift. I love what I do," Walker said.

Her work as a Meals on Wheels volunteer, director of operations (2002), executive director (2006) and now president has taught her that "need" is not always about economics. Some people may have the means to live independently, but not the mobility.

"A lot of it is mobility; it's not always a financial issue," Walker says. "A typical case is of a couple who had moved here 10 years ago to retire. Their children don't live here. When one of them had a stroke, the other became the primary caregiver. They don't want to move to assisted living or a nursing home, but they can't prepare their meals. That it's always about economics is a rumor that we try to dispel. We are not just feeding the poor or minorities. Half of all people who are food-insecure are in fact not minorities."

ECMOW, which is funded by grants and resident support, works in concert with other area organizations and churches when appropriate. It is a member agency of the Lowcountry Food Bank, though it does not run a full-fledged pantry. In fact, for the past two years, Walker also has served on the board of directors of the food bank and is secretary of the board.

Overcoming pride

Not surprisingly, a certain degree of delicacy is required in dealing with the pride barrier, delivering food to people who may resist the idea of charity and who often must come to grips with the loss of independence.

"People don't really want to ask," says Walker. "They don't want the appearance of charity. It's a hard thing for seniors to say they no longer can drive, no longer can buy their own food. If you can't prepare your own food, basically you can't stay in your own home. You can live without a car because people can run errands for you, but preparing one's own food is something seniors try to hang on to.

To ease that transition, Walker says the organization can identify a house just by using its logo, and it never publishes the names of its recipients.

"We don't write 'East Cooper Meals on Wheels' on the logo. And we always ask if we can place it on a door or mailbox (to help the drivers)."

But Walker says the biggest challenge she and her staff face is making certain everybody in the community knows Meals is Wheels is there: "That being sure people are comfortable contacting us and that they know that we do not charge for meals, which is very different from most Meals on Wheels.

"We will never charge for meals, and we will never run a waiting list. If you call on Thursday, I guarantee you will have a meal by Monday," she says. "We will walk that walk with our recipients."

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.