Self Organizing - Meals on Wheels

Overview
Volunteering for Meals On Wheels to deliver prepared dinners to homebound seniors is a great opportunity for your family to connect with seniors in your community. You can volunteer to deliver the meals and/or make a hand-decorated placemat and greeting card to be delivered with the meal. Another idea is to make a Toiletry Gift Bag to add to their meal tray.

Goals

To deliver and provide meals to homebound seniors in your community
To learn about the needs of homebound seniors
To connect with agencies like Meals on Wheels and Social Services.
To develop compassion for the people you are serving

Supporting Organizations

Department of Human Services
Meals On Wheels
Local senior center

Materials

Construction paper
Markers, stickers, scissors, glue
Clear contact paper or a laminating machine
Small, decorative bags and assorted sample size toiletries

Instructions

Connect with your local Meals On Wheels organization or an appropriate social services agency and volunteer to help deliver Meals On Wheels to homebound seniors.
Make placemats out of 11” x 14” construction paper to accompany the delivered meals. Decorate the placemats with cheerful drawings or stickers. Use clear contact paper on both sides to make the placemat waterproof, or run it through a laminating machine. Make a greeting card with a positive, cheerful message. Add the card and holiday decorations or a jar of flowers to the meal tray along with the placemat. Each volunteer should make 20 placemats.
Optional project ideas:
- Assemble a Toiletry Gift Bag and include travel-size shampoos, soaps, lotions and toothpaste, notepad, pen, small flashlight and batteries or a magnifying glass. Each volunteer should complete 10 - 15 toiletry gift bags.
- Include a homemade greeting card with a positive, cheerful message.
- Ask your local Meals On Wheels if they participate in the WALOP initiative. WALOP stands for “We All Love Our Pets.” Meals On Wheels recognizes the importance of a pet to homebound seniors and the difficulty some seniors have feeding their pets. If your local Meals On Wheels participates in WALOP, consider purchasing pet food or asking other families and local merchants for donations to send with your delivery. Each volunteer should provide 25-30 cans of pet food.

Additional Resources

Seniors Fact Sheet for Kids at www.HandsOnNetwork.org/FamilyVolunteering/ServiceLearning

Meals On Wheels National Association at http://www.mowaa.org/Page.aspx?pid=183

The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
All the houses in town are well kept and freshly painted except the "Goat Lady's" house. Her home is falling apart and her yard is full of farm animals including goats. Read how the community comes to embrace the "Goat Lady" after a family befriends her.

Down Home at Miss Dessa's by Bettye Stroud
Set in the 1940's, this book tells the story of two sisters who help take care of Miss Dessa after she hurts her foot. After awhile, the sisters start getting back just as much as they put in and end up making a true friend.

Reflection
After your volunteer project, it is important for families to reflect on their experiences. Choose one of the Reflection Activities from the list below.

Magic Wand – This activity uses the concept of a magic wand to help children talk about and reflect on their volunteer experience. Have your family sit in a circle. Tell everyone that you have just found a magic wand that allows you to grant wishes, and pose the questions, “If you could grant a wish to one person, who would it be, and what do you think he or she would wish for?” “How do you think what we did today will make someone feel, and how do you think that is similar to granting a wish?”

Family Pictionary – Have each member of the family take turns drawing something about their volunteer experience and how they felt about it. While each person is drawing, have everyone else try to guess what the picture represents. After each picture is drawn, the artist should talk about the picture and why they chose to draw it.