By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Three days a week Nicole Person uses two dozen volunteers to put together 65 meals for low-income, disabled or homebound residents of the Yachats and Waldport areas.
Her diners come to the Waldport Community Center at noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays where kitchen volunteers have assembled meals and set up tables. Other volunteers jump in their cars and deliver 44 meals to people from Yachats in the south to Seal Rock in the north.
“Sometimes Meals on Wheels drivers are the only people they see,” said Person, who manages the Waldport kitchen for program.
And now she needs more volunteers to either help in the kitchen or help deliver on one of three routes.
One couple who drives is moving, Person said. Others are making their own spring and summer travel plans. She’s especially in need of help on Fridays.
“We’re entirely run by volunteers,” she said. “And we’re completely flexible as to what people want to do.”
Volunteers can work one, two or three days a week. Drivers spend about two hours on the road. Kitchen workers are there any time between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The food is prepared in a central kitchen in Newport and delivered to the Waldport center by 7 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There, volunteers break it down into individual meals for the noon diners or for drivers to deliver.
The program in Lincoln, Benton and Linn counties is managed by the Albany-based Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. There are five Meals on Wheels sites in Lincoln County: Waldport, Newport, Toledo, Siletz and Lincoln City.
Although the dine-in program does not turn people away, it is aimed at those over 60 years of age and the disabled. The delivery program is for the homebound because they lack transportation or have limited mobility. The Aging and Disability Resources Connection in Toledo screens people for eligibility and then helps monitors clients to make sure they’re doing OK.
Drivers delivering meals also check with the client to make sure they are doing OK, and if not can alert the Aging and Disability office of possible issues.
“We often find people in distress,” Person said.
Person said the center asks for a $3.50 donation to help cover some of the cost of the meals “but we don’t turn anyone away.” Overall funding comes from the Council of Governments, donations and grants.
“We don’t have the budget to do everything we like,” she said.
And that’s why volunteers are so critical.
Nicole Fredrickson of Waldport started volunteering in the kitchen 16 months ago. She had moved from Portland where she had volunteered in a school kitchen.
“I really enjoy it,” she said. “There are a lot of great people who come to eat and to work.”
Cary Fitzgerald of Yachats works in the kitchen on Wednesdays. She moved recently to the coast from Tennessee and wanted to get to know the community.
“I wanted to volunteer, to meet some people and get out of myself,” she said. “It’s great. I love it.”
For more information or to volunteer:
Nicole Person, Waldport Community Center: 541-563-8796; nperson@ocwcog.org
Meals on Wheels, Lincoln County: 800-282-6194
Aging and Disability Resource Connection, Toldeo: 855-673-2372; on the web at: ADRCofOregon.org