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Bath's Meals on Wheels celebrates 20 years
By Margo Oxendine • Staff Writer
 | | Meals on Wheels drivers one morning last week included, from left, Ed McArdle, Chantell Hupman, Hella Armstrong, Jane Lyle, Jeanne Apgar and Margo Oxendine. Hupman drives the meals down from Monterey, where they're cooked by Blue Roof Caterers, to Warm Springs, where they're picked up and then driven to recipients around Bath County. (Recorder photo courtesy Ernie Lyle) |
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HOT SPRINGS - While this dateline reads "Hot Springs," one might pick any spot in Bath - Mountain Grove, Millboro, as well as Hot, Warm or Healing Springs. From Burnsville to Bolar and beyond, Meals on Wheels has covered Bath County for 20 years.
The late Tommy May Sr. got the wheels turning in 1988. Back then, there were 15 recipients spread across Bath County. The number receiving meals has been as high as 75, and as low as 22; right now, 38 people are receiving meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
These statistics come from Jane Lyle of Bacova, who has nurtured Meals on Wheels like a mother hen since its inception. She drives, she delivers, she coordinates, she coddles, she cajoles. Lyle probably does or has done every single thing needed, at one time or another, to keep Meals on Wheels on the road.
"It has been around so long, and operated so smoothly, that the greater community in Bath County looks upon it as an institution," she says.
Ah, an institution. There's a word one doesn't necessarily want to have associated with one's meals. No worries; these meals are far from institutional. In fact, since last October, they are prepared by the Botkin sisters, who own and operate Blue Roof Caterers in Highland County. The Botkin sisters are all about home-cooked, down-home food. The hot meal delivered one recent day featured stuffed peppers and baked beans. The folks on the Healing Springs route, when told what lunch would be, were delighted.
One might wonder why meals for Bath County recipients are being cooked in Highland County. Logistically, that is not ideal; after all, those meals are driven some 30 miles before they reach the first of their destinations.
Lyle explains, "Vendors from all over Bath County have provided food through the years, from high school kids in the Mertz Vocational foods program, to restaurants, to the local hospital. This time around, there were no bids on the food contract from Bath County. We are grateful to have Blue Roof Caterers as our contractors."
In addition to the three hot meals volunteers deliver each week, there are also two frozen meals. This makes the answer to "What's for dinner?" quite simple for many elderly, ill and shut-in folks around Bath County.
"I really enjoy my meals," says Lillie McElwee of Hot Springs, who recently turned 80 years old. "I think all the meals are very good, and I like all the people who bring them; they are all very nice." McElwee has been a Meals on Wheels recipient for about six months, she says, adding, "And they sure save me a whole lot on groceries." She especially likes getting a hot meal, which she enjoys for dinner that day, and a frozen meal, which "I put away and save for the days that you all don't come." The added meals also occasionally provide an opportunity to share.
"My neighbor hurt her foot real bad, and I was able to give her one of my meals and save her from having to cook that night," McElwee notes. "I get enough that I don't have to buy a lot of groceries. It's hard for me to get out to the store," she says, "and those meals are real tasty lately. I'm tickled with every bit of it."
McElwee's comments were echoed by Janet Andrews, 93, of Healing Springs. "It helps me a lot to save on the groceries," she says. "I still drive, but I don't much like to."
Lyle is well aware of this aspect of the program. "Meals on Wheels is more than nutrition. It is fellowship, checking up on neighbors, and empowering persons to stay in a home environment longer than they normally might be able."
Right now, there are six routes throughout Bath; there have been as many as 11 routes in the past. And, each of these routes must have a driver, three days a week. Some volunteers have driven since the program started.
And some drivers are older than the recipients they serve. Herman Cauley of Millboro, for instance, was delivering Meals on Wheels well into his 90s.
The volunteer drivers truly keep Meals on Wheels on the road. Without them, the program would cease to exist.
Lyle notes with passion, "The driver facet of the program is most fragile, and vitally important. It takes seven or eight drivers willing to deliver two times a month to get the job done. That means, at the most, two hours per delivery day. Some routes take less than an hour; one takes just a few minutes. Routes include the Warm Springs area; Hot Springs and southwest on 687 (Cedar Creek); Hot Springs and 220 South, through Healing Springs; the Stagecoach Road area; Millboro, and roads in two different directions there. Also, we need a driver to deliver meals from the pick-up point at Valley Animal Hospital in Warm Springs to the eastern foot of Warm Springs Mountain, where they then load-off food to the two Millboro area drivers. The routes range from a few miles to 45."
The person who drives furthest is Chantell Hupman of Monterey. She picks up the hot and frozen meals from Blue Roof Caterers at The Highland Center, and hies down from Highland to Bath three days a week. She works for Valley Program for Aging Services, which administers the Meals on Wheels programs in both Bath and Highland. Hupman puts about 200 miles a week on the program's vehicle, a retired sheriff's officecar that has truly seen better days.
"I love my job," says Hupman, who has worked with VPAS for almost two years. The mission of VPAS, based in Waynesboro, is "to support independent living for people 60 and older, and to enhance their ability to live at home with dignity, as long as appropriate."
Volunteers help make this happen, out of the proverbial goodness of their hearts.
The volunteer Meals on Wheels drivers are not paid, Lyle emphasizes. "They donate their gas and time. Finding an adequate number of drivers has always been a challenge, no matter the cost of gas. But nowadays, the cost of transportation could become a real issue. Most of the drivers are not working, but several leave their jobs for the time it takes to deliver, and they do so with the blessing of their employer; in some cases, they are the employer."
The driver schedule is not hard and fast, but liquid. At the end of each month, Lyle sends out the schedule for the coming month. Drivers can select dates, or make switches, according their personal and business commitments. As Lyle says, "Drivers are welcome to take a vacation, or take off and spend the winter in the Sun Belt, if they wish. We're happy to accommodate our drivers, because we're very happy to have them."
From time to time during the program, routes have to be redesigned. This is always rather sad for drivers and recipients alike.
"Friendships blossom and there is a hue and cry when routes have to be redesigned," notes Lyle. "Drivers do not want to lose the routine delivery contact they have with the recipients."
While Meals on Wheels uses the word "recipients" for its clients who receive meals, drivers and other volunteers know that they, too, are recipients.
"It really works on both ends," Lyle says. "Drivers love doing this, or they would not arrange their schedule in order to accomplish the delivery. And those who receive the food love the quick visits as much as, if not more than, the food itself."
As any driver knows, this is very true. Often, a driver is the only human contact a recipient will have that day. One of the most difficultthings about being a driver is knowing these precious visits must be short; there are more hot meals, waiting to be delivered. It is not uncommon for a driver who becomes familiar with his or her "people" to remember them with presents at Christmas, to bring them little extra somethings from time to time, to worry about their welfare.
Ed McArdle, who has been a volunteer driver since he moved to Bath some 10 years ago, says, "I just love it. It is such an easy way to give back to the community. It is a small sacrifice for me to make, in order to assure that our folks are taken care of. I would encourage anyone to do this. I'm here to say that anyone can findtime in their day."
McArdle adds, "For me, it is a feel-good thing; being a chef, I know what it feels like when people cook you a meal; and, to have it delivered? Well, that is even more of a bonus! It's a great program, and provides a wonderful service, with limited resources. I commend the whole program. The meals are well balanced, and provide great nutrition; people really seem to enjoy the quality of their meals."
Lyle, whose official title is volunteer coordinator, shares those sentiments about the program. "We have people who depend on the Meals program," she says. "We have wonderful and charming persons with special needs: persons who cannot hear, persons who cannot see, persons who cannot speak, persons who cannot walk, and persons who just plain need and qualify for the program."
Lyle hopes that some of those reading this might think about becoming volunteers themselves. "There just has to be wonderful and charming pre-drivers around," she says. "We would love to have some drivers who are young parents. They can bring their children with them on the delivery route; the laughter and vitality of small children are loved, and it teaches them to reach out to others at an early age. Teens could drive and deliver - and have - during school holidays and the summer months. Businesses could donate one driver every month for two hours, and tremendously help the program. Every hour is important," she notes. "Our volunteer resource is stretched past the maximum; we are in dire need of more drivers. It is a mystery to me why more people do not volunteer to drive. I accept the fact, but fail to understand."
Those who cannot or would prefer not to drive can also help. The Meals on Wheels program gave up its local phone number years ago, in an effort to reduce costs, but there is a local voice-mail number: 839-6325
839-MEAL). Messages may be left at any time. In fact, herein lies an opportunity for another volunteer, one who may not be able to drive and deliver.
"A volunteer could check messages from their home, and notify appropriate people as the message dictates," Lyle notes. If this appeals to you, contact her.
One thing the Meals on Wheels program can always put to excellent use is monetary donations.
"Our costs keep rising," Lyle says, "especially with the escalation of food and gas prices recently. Donations from churches, clubs, individuals, the Bath County Board of Supervisors, VPAS, and businesses really help assure the stability of the program."
To make a monetary donation, send your check to Meals on Wheels, PO Box 822, Hot Springs, VA 24445.
"Bath County Meals on Wheels is an empowerment program," Lyle emphasizes. "Be a part of it!"
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