Meals on Wheels San Antonio (MOWSA) is suffering from a major deficit in delivery volunteers, which is preventing the food and nutrition nonprofit from serving its senior clientele regular hot meals.
But a sharp decline in volunteers that began with the pandemic three years ago has persisted, and the organization doesn’t have enough consistent delivery drivers to serve hot meals, even though they have the kitchen capacity. Instead, MOWSA has continued to serve seniors frozen meals and relied on administrative staff to pick up delivery shifts on a weekly basis.
MOWSA Director of Marketing and Communications Ariana Barbour said the frozen food is still nutritious, but it doesn’t have the same impact as a hot, fresh meal.
“Hots are important because that warm meal can make just all the difference in the world,” she said. “Like it’s ready to eat immediately. We give it to a person, they’re that much more likely to actually sit down and eat it.”
Barbour said their biggest source of volunteer loss has been from corporate groups. MOWSA is down from around 30 regular corporate volunteer groups to 12.
“You’re making a difference in their lives,” Barbour said. “You might be the only person that they see, and that’s a big deal. For some people, they say, ‘You’re an angel, thank you for delivering the food.’ I mean some of the things that they say when you deliver, you’re like, ‘All I’m doing is bringing you this food,’ but to them it means so much more.”
Individuals interested in volunteering can go to our Volunteer page and schedule shifts. Organizations or corporate groups can call 210-735-5115 to talk through the process.