Delivering Meals and Hope to Seniors

The video opens by showing the Meals on Wheels Western Michigan location in Grandville, Michigan. Volunteers and team members prepare food in the kitchen and load it for deliveries.

A senior man begins to speak. 

Senior man 1: “Grand Rapids is a nice place to be. It shows me a lot of kindness and love and some care here through the people. I thank God he helped me kept myself together. I’m still making it. 80 years old.” He smiles.

The man’s audio is overlayed on footage of Meals on Wheels Western Michigan volunteers and team members preparing meals.

Senior man 1: “I started getting Meals on the Wheel. You know it’s a program that I really now say it’s a spiritual program. Meals on Wheels help you—a lot of people—save a lot of lives. Made a lot of people strong.”

Now footage shows the inside of the Meals on Wheels Western Michigan Senior Pantry, complete with stocked shelves and canned goods. A Meals on Wheels Western Michigan team member begins to talk.

Team member 1: “When I see a senior walk in the building and just know that they’re here because they need food, it really tugs at the heartstrings.”

Senior woman 1: “They know us by names and they’re willing to help us if something happens or…” She trails off. “We just feel very comfortable here with the staff.”

Senior woman 2: “It’s a good organization, and to help other people out…” She trails off.

Senior woman 3: “I probably eat better. I eat a lot more vegetables now than I used to so we’re real friendly. We’d miss them if we didn’t come here.”

Team member: “It gives me a great feeling knowing that they’re leaving the pantry with a smile on their face and that they’re going to go home and they’re going to have a pantry full of food. And to me, that’s worth everything.”

Senior man 1: “The difference it made in my life is during the time, you know, I was doing unemployment, you know, off my jobs. And when Meals on Wheels came to me, it saved a lot of dollars that I was spending. I was really grateful, you know. Really grateful for it.”

At the Wyoming Senior Center, Meals on Wheels Western Michigan volunteers wearing masks serve meals to seniors.

Team member 2: “The most about my job that I love is the seniors. I need them as much as they need me. The impact that I see is the health and wellbeing, the happiness of the seniors. The fellowship amongst all of them is unbelievable.”

Senior woman 4: “Well, when you’re single and you live alone, you know, and you come over here for a meal, that’s one meal you don’t have to cook, because it’s too hard to cook for one. But if you’ve got a Meal on Wheels in your freezer, you know you’re going to get a balanced meal.”

Senior woman 5: “Where if you’re at home cooking for yourself, you don’t do this, and you don’t have people to associate with, where down here, most of us, that’s why we come. It’s to have friendship and the meal together with people, and that’s very important when you get our age.”

Senior woman 6: “I think it’s very important for some seniors. I mean, I can go to the store and get what I want, but some can’t, and for some, this is their main meal for the day. And they really need it.”

Senior woman 5: “There are many of the elderly that do not have enough food to eat, so this, the Meals on Wheels definitely is very vital to all the seniors.”

Team member 2: “That’s the most important thing. It’s that we continue—whether it’s here, whether it’s home delivery—that we provide for the seniors and that they’re not forgotten, like our mission says: Never hungry and never forgotten.”

Marley, a Meals on Wheels Western Michigan volunteer driver, delivers food to senior man 1.

Senior man 1: “The Meals on Wheels is a great thing in Grand Rapids. Well, you know, it’s so great when I see Marla come. I’ll be looking out the windows, and when I see her coming, I can say, ‘I can eat now.’ But it puts a smile on my face when I see her. And it brings me joy. You know, it releases the life out of you.”

Meals on Wheels Western Michigan volunteers load Home Delivered Meals into coolers for delivery.

Senior man 1: “I enjoy all of the meals, you know, because all of it is good for me. The program needs money to get this food and do things and give it out, so when we donate, that donation will help make it stronger. You know, we want this program. It should last the rest of your life. And by your helping, it helps the program to continue stronger and last longer. And put smiles instead of frowns on people’s faces, you know.”

Text on screen reads, “Together, we can deliver®. Meals on Wheels Western Michigan.”