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Meals on Wheels South Florida is looking for 100-200 volunteers to deliver meals to seniors

Posted at 3:47 PM, Jan 12, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-12 15:47:13-05

Every week on The Rebound, we’ve been telling you about Meals on Wheels South Florida. The nonprofit, which provides over one million meals to homebound seniors every year, has seen an immense increase in need for food, and now more than ever, they need your help.

Last year, Meals on Wheels South Florida struggled with getting homebound seniors off their waitlist. But with the help of funding from the Older Americans Act, they were able to place a large number of people on the home-delivered meal program, which means they need more volunteers.

Meals on Wheels South Florida is looking for 100-200 volunteers to fill that need.

“Over the course of the last 11 months, we’ve had a lot of volunteers who are older adults themselves who need to self isolate to keep themselves safe. A number of them have no come back yet so we really are looking for volunteers,” said Mark.

“I’m a retired social worker so I’ve done all kinds of things. So I thought it would be a very useful thing to do so here I am,” said Carol Pagones, volunteer.

80-year-old Carol Pagones has been volunteering for the nonprofit for just four weeks and says the pandemic hasn’t scared her away from the opportunity.

“In the 80’s I used to do medical social work and I used to work with AIDS patients. So I thought, I can do this and it’ll be fine. I’ll have my mask on and wash my hands. I just felt that it would be an OK thing to do,” said Carol.

Carol says Meals on Wheels has made it very easy for volunteers and says she hopes people will take at least one day out of their week to help those in need.

“Everybody has been very helpful. They meet you when you go pick up the food to make sure you need all the things that you need. They even put a map quest route in for you. It’s a very important thing to do for people who are homebound to have somebody come to their door once in a while and see a friendly face,” said Carol.

Right now, Meals on Wheels South Florida is depending on donations and volunteers to stay afloat. If you’d like to support the nonprofits mission, click here.