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INDIANAPOLIS — With plastic gloves and facemasks, Meals on Wheels volunteers are making sure no senior goes hungry.
The volunteers know how important this service is as hundreds of Hoosiers in our area rely on Meals on Wheels for food. They've also had to make some changes to keep everyone safe in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deliveries look a little different now.
"We call it knock and dash lovingly," one volunteer said. "It's not what we usually do. We usually do the wellness check with the client, see how they're doing, say hello, but today we're distancing ourselves as much as we can."
Volunteers leave the food by the door and then step away to make sure they leave a safe distance between them and the recipients rather than going inside. It's not the only change that's been made.
"What we've done to reduce the exposure to our clients who are considered the most vulnereable in this population is switch to a 10-day fresh frozen meal plan," Brandi Sasore, communications manager for Meals on Wheels, said. "They will now receive those meals that they used to receive every day once a week via UPS."
Wellness checks are now being done over the phone instead of in person. Leaders said they lost a volunteers due to illness or corporations stepping back as they moved to a work-from-home model but there has been an increase in new volunteers.
"It's a matter of one, getting out of the house and two, trying to do some good," Ray Baker said. "This is something that needs to get done."
"It is just really tremendous at this time everyone is worried about their own personal safety but there are people that are willing to do what they can, use the proper protection to still make sure people who have no choice can still eat," Sasore said.