- MoW client Senaida Mokarzel with her lunch.
Meals on Wheels (MoW) is Capital Metro’s neighbor over here on East 5th St. Capital Metro employees have been delivering Meals on Wheels since 1996. Recently, I rode along with Jennifer Govea and Terri Wilson, as they delivered for Meals on Wheels. They volunteer on their lunch break to help out with the program.
MoW, is a non-profit program that gives homebound seniors and individuals with disabilities a hot lunch. The Austin chapter, Meals on Wheels and More also runs other programs, more info here.
Seventeen Capital Metro volunteers deliver meals on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
On the day I tagged along, we delivered to eight houses, and stopped to talk with Senaida Mokarzel, a MoW client.
“It makes me happy when Meals on Wheels comes,” Mokarzel, who has received meals for eight years, said. “I enjoy y’all coming and like the vegetables and food they bring.”
The volunteers really like what they do and most have been involved several years. Jennifer, a four year volunteer and Service Analysis Manager for Capital Metro, was hooked after her first time.
“MoW looked interesting, and I thought that it’d be good for me to join. After one trip around, I saw how much the folks enjoy it,” she said.
Other employees who participate also feel the sense of benevolence from volunteering.
“After you make your deliveries you feel really blessed, like things aren’t really that bad. There’s something very uplifting about helping out,” Terri said. Terri is the senior administrative assistant for the planning department for Capital Metro and serves as Capital Metro’s volunteer coordinator for the Thursday deliveries.
It was really enjoyable being able to meet the people that get helped by the program and assist with the deliveries. To know that it only took about 40 minutes to help brighten the day of the MoW folks by giving them a healthy hot meal, and talking to them was wonderful.
The other thing that impressed me is the dedication of our volunteers.
“We’ve done it rain or shine, it doesn’t matter what the weather is; we even delivered in an ice storm once,” Jennifer said.
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