Local municipal leaders will be rolling up their sleeves and dishing out a helping of caring spirit Mar. 21 at the third annual Mayors for Meals affair.
Organized by Community Care Concepts, the event sees local mayors deliver meals for the Meals on Wheels program. This year, the mayors from Woolwich, Wellesley and Wilmot townships will be participating in their respective areas.
Community Care Concepts has been running programs such as Meals on Wheels for 25 years in the townships in order to help seniors and those living with disabilities live independently in their own homes.
Sharon Walsh, local Meals on Wheels program coordinator, plans to pair the mayors with a more experienced volunteer before sending them each on a different route in the area.
“It’s to raise awareness that we need volunteers. We always need volunteers,” said Walsh.
“We can always use volunteers as spares for when the regulars can’t deliver.”
The deliveries for each route only take about 90 minutes during lunchtime, but the human contact means much more to those living alone.
Wellesley Mayor Ross Kelterborn is a veteran of the project and said delivering the meals not only supports those receiving the food, but the volunteers who make deliveries for the rest of the year.
“Seniors really appreciate the people coming around,” he said. “I think it’s a great service and I’m prepared to help.”
Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan, who will be making his first Meals on Wheels delivery, is looking forward to learning from more experience volunteers.
“I support the concept of keeping people in their homes for as long as possible,” he said.
The number of houses on each route changes from day to day, but Walsh estimates each mayor will be delivering between six and 10 meals, in both rural and more urban areas.
“It’s a good focal point for (the mayors). It’s their constituents that they are delivering the meals to,” Walsh said. “It’s promotion for them, it’s promotion for us and it’s just a nice way to have a different spin on it for that one day.”
