Volunteers step up for Meals on Wheels

Colfax Fire & Rescue volunteers who will participate in the Meals on Wheels deliveries this month are, from left, Esther Tate, Scott Kruse, David Buckley, Tim Tingley and Randy Miller.

When Paige Collins, executive director at Council on Aging and COAST, sent out a plea for volunteers to deliver lunch for Meals on Wheels for an entire month, she might not have been able to imagine the new delivery truck: the Colfax fire department's brush truck, the pickup which is used for quick response to emergency calls.

“Volunteer firefighters are going to do all the weekends for me,” said Collins, noting the front desk staff at city hall has volunteered to be a backup in the event the firefighters are called out for an emergency.

The firefighters do plan to deliver meals on the weekends in the department’s brush truck, said Randy Miller, one of the volunteers.

“I think it will be really cool for them to come up in a fire truck,” said Collins. “It’s awesome.”

Collins sent out a request in early December seeking volunteers to cover for Meals on Wheels for mid-December to the end of January after learning on short notice that the group which normally covers that time period would be unable to do so. Though she found herself in a bind, Collins said she was not at all surprised by the response.

“Within one solid week I had the month covered,” she said. “It spread like wildfire. Colfax, they always come through for us.”

In addition to the volunteer firefighters, Collins said the McGregor Company, Whitman Hospital and Washington Federal Bank have also stepped up.

“As usual, Colfax came through for us in a pinch,” she said. “We’ve had all sorts of interested groups and people from Colfax step up to help out.”

For the companies involved, Collins said Meals on Wheels will become a part of their lunch breaks.

“A lot of local business people can do it on their lunches,” she said.

Collins said there have been times in the past when she has had to seek out volunteers, but she has never been in a situation where she has needed this much time covered on short notice.

“We’ve never needed a pinch of a whole month,” she said.

Collins added that the response to the request for volunteers was overwhelming.

“I ended up with more volunteers than we really needed,” she said. “I was actually having to say no.”

Council on Aging and Human Services serves 10 clients in Colfax daily through Meals on Wheels. Hot lunches are delivered daily. Collins called this an essential service for the council.

“It’s also a good way for us to check in on the older folks in the community,” she said, noting that for some of them, the Meals on Wheels drop off is their only visit each day. “And folks get a nice, hot meal every day at lunch time.”

Collins also said she thinks it will be a positive thing to have the volunteer firefighters deliver the meals on the weekends.

“It will be really nice for our clients to be in touch with the firefighters without there being an emergency,” she said.

The Meals on Wheels program has been in Colfax for several years now. Collins said it is a cost-free program for those who need it.

“There’s no cost to sign up,” she said. “If they need it, they get it. It could be as simple as ‘I don’t have the strength to get up and cook.’”

There are donation slips sent out to the clients at the end of each month, but they are under no obligation to donate. Collins also said there is room to take on more clients for Meals on Wheels. There is room in both Colfax and Pullman for clients, she said.

“We are just here to support the community,” said Collins.

Anyone needing to sign up for Meals on Wheels can do so by contacting the Council on Aging:

509-397-4305.