More than a Meal on Wheels

By April Silvaggio  

JULY 20, 2010 7:33 a.m. (1)

Shirley Phillips can remember years ago her mother and aunt volunteering with Meals on Wheels.

Still, the Greenville woman who worked three decades as a social worker with the state Department of Social Services didn’t quite understand the bond between Meals on Wheels clients and volunteers.

Until two weeks ago.

It was a Monday night, June 28, about 6 p.m. when Phillips said she finally arrived home from taking her 89-year-old mother to a doctor’s appointment. She was startled by a message on her answering machine.

“It was from Meals on Wheels, and they were calling because they were concerned because my aunt hadn’t responded when they tried to deliver her meal that day,” Phillips said.

Phillips said she tried to remain calm.

“I called her two or three times, and left messages to please call me, and I called two or three other family members to see if she was with them,” Phillips said.

She wasn’t.

By 7 p.m., Phillips and three of her cousins met at her aunt’s home.

The cousins pounded on the door to no avail.

One cousin, a Greenville County deputy, grabbed a crowbar to pry his way inside.

Her 83-year-old aunt was on the floor, confused and unresponsive. She had apparently suffered a light stroke, blacked out and fallen sometime over the weekend. She was badly dehydrated. Doctors who examined her at the hospital determined she was also suffering from an irregular heartbeat.

“I’m convinced that Meals on Wheels saved her life,” Phillips said. “We think she had been on the floor a couple of days.”

Her aunt is recuperating.

Liz Seman, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Greenville County said Phillips’ experience isn’t out of the ordinary.

Last week, one of the organization’s volunteers while attempting to deliver lunch found a client who had fallen in her home and broken her hip. The volunteer immediately dialed 911, and then notified one of the client’s friends. He waited with the elderly woman until the ambulance arrived.

Since 1968, Meals on Wheels has grown into a volunteer corps of more than 2,500 individual, group and corporate volunteers who serve 1,500 meals a day throughout Greenville County.

During 2009, volunteers delivered 368,191 mills, and served an average of 1,302 clients per month. The organization is funded by gifts from individuals, churches, civic groups and businesses.

All Meals on Wheels clients are referred by a physician, and there has never been a waiting list. Meals are provided free of charge, and there are no financial qualifications.

Clients are homebound and physically or mentally challenged to a point where meal preparation is nearly impossible. Most clients live alone or with another incapacitated person.

“Meals on Wheels is definitely more than a meal,” Seman said. “A hot, nutritious meal delivered by a loving and caring volunteer fights malnutrition, depression and a sense of isolation.”

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CD Bonaparte-garrett  - Feed My Sheep   |2010-07-21 03:44:20 And Our Father said, Peter will you feed my sheep? Peter will you feed my sheep, and Peter replied Yes father I will feed your sheep. Thank God for those that say yes to our Lord and all..All His ways. Thank you Meals on Wheels Thank you. Reply

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