Published: July 12, 2008 06:04 pm         

Local teens help keep Meals on Wheels rolling

San Marcos — It’s just after 10 a.m. when the four teenagers begin wrapping the hair nets around their heads, sharing a few laughs in the kitchen before getting to work.

Most of their friends are spending their summer mornings sleeping. But Simon Sanchez, Samantha Moreno, Alex DeLeon and Ysa Sanchez are wide awake and helping prepare lunches for the local Meals on Wheels program.

The scene inside the Allen Woods Homes kitchen is like an intense restaurant kitchen during the supper rush.

“All right, who’s serving what?” site manager Beatrice Pacheco asks.

“I’ve got the lettuce and tomatoes,” DeLeon calls back.

“Don’t forget to wash your hands,” Beatrice reminds the kids.

For the next few minutes, the teens form an assembly line and are putting together the 50 or so meals set to be delivered to the elderly and disabled in the afternoon.

“I just get bored in the morning, there’s nothing really to do,” Simon says while packing a meal. “Plus, it feels good to help the elderly. It feels really good.”

Alex, 14, was the first to walk into the Allen Woods home office back in June and offer to help. The three others soon followed, and every day but Monday the group prepares meals from 8 a.m. to noon inside the kitchen.

And Pacheco is more than pleased to have the help.

“These kids could be asleep right now, but they’re not,” Pacheco said. “Basically, they’re just teens who wanted to do something with their summer... If it weren’t for them, it would be just me and Lola (a regular Meals on Wheels volunteer) back here preparing everything.”

She’s glad also because gas prices are making life even harder for programs like Meals on Wheels. The ones immediately affected are the ones driving around town delivering the meals. But it could get worse soon.

“It’s not good. In fact it’s really bad,” Pacheco said. “All our food comes from Giddings. Gas prices are killing us as well as the volunteers who drive around delivering meals.”

Ella Hurst, regional director for the Combined Community Action Senior Nutrition Program, which oversees Meals on Wheels, says that as of now, no volunteers have been lost throughout the region that covers Bastrop, Blanco, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays and Lee counties. But this October when she goes to enter a new contract with the program’s food company, she expects a price hike.

“They have told me that the gasoline cost is going to have an impact on cost,” Hurst said. “It’s already had an impact on the cost of food that they’ve had to buy.”

And the cost will continue to make it more complicated for volunteer drivers.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be next year. I think we’ll probably lose some,” Hurst said. “They’ve always been concerned about the home bound people they serve... but I know personally, I don’t go anywhere without thinking about how much gas I’m burning, and I know they don’t either.”

Sixty-four percent of the program’s funds come Federally. The remaining income comes from local counties and municipalities and fundraisers Combined Community Action hosts throughout the year.

The Meals on Wheels program — which originated in Great Britain in the 1940s — is a nation-wide program that delivers hot meals to those who are unable to prepare their own. The Meals on Wheels Program began here in 1978 by Church Women United, and has since been picked up by Combined Community Action.

Volunteers from four local churches deliver the meals on a rotating basis. It’s amazing, Pacheco says, that many of the church members are the same age as the person they’re delivering to.

“There’s volunteers that have been with the organization for years. They’re 50, 60 years old and still delivering,” Pacheco said.

As for the young volunteers, Pacheco will hate to see them go when school starts. And while Pacheco and Hurst both admit they’re worried about gas prices and how they will affect charities like Meals on Wheels, people like Alex and Simon and Samantha and Ysa are a welcome surprise.

“They’re just really, really good kids,” Pacheco said.

     

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.