Driver delivers to homebound Butler residents every Wednesday
There are streets in Butler that only get vehicular traffic from people going to their home, visiting a friend or family member, or people making deliveries. Like these streets, some of their residents only see one person per day — their Meals on Wheels delivery driver.
On Wednesdays, that one visitor is Marsh Miller, a delivery driver who needs no map to get to the addresses on his list because he has traversed them many times as a lifelong Butler resident. He has become more acquainted with the roads and their residents through his volunteering with Meals on Wheels, which he has driven for off and on for about 10 years.
On Wednesday, May 21, Miller went about his regular Meals on Wheels route to five houses in the Butler area. His routine begins just before 11 a.m. and it only takes him about an hour to complete his rounds. Despite this short amount of service time per week, Miller said each of his regular recipients is appreciative of his work and that of his fellow drivers who deliver to them the other four days of the week.
The delivery may be the only personal interaction the clients get in a day, and the only way they get a hot meal. The appreciation is often evident when Miller knocks on a door to make a delivery.
“I don't think I have ever met any person on any of the routes I did that was not nice,” Miller said.
Miller arrived at about 10:40 a.m. at the Meals on Wheels location at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Butler, where some of the agency’s staff and volunteers had been prepping the meals since 8 a.m. The fleet of “wheels” park outside the church and volunteer drivers convene in the cafeteria area, where they talk to one another and administrators before picking up their containers and coolers to head out.
Terri Tirk, program director, said the organization is independent from the national Meals on Wheels, and clients who are enrolled pay for the meals. She said the Butler program has about 190 volunteers, who perform all the duties, from making the food, to packing it and delivering it to clients. On average, the agency has 90 clients at a time, but Tirk said it could handle up to 120.
Most of the volunteers only work with Meals on Wheels once or twice a week, while the three full-time staff members work each weekday. The cooks, who are also paid staff, come in at 8 a.m., then the packers come in around 9 a.m. The organization has eight different menus, which rotate from week to week, according to Tirk. Each client gets one hot and one cold meal each day.
Tirk said she makes a schedule based on the availability of volunteers and what task they prefer to take on at the nonprofit. She also designs the delivery routes and tries to optimize them so drivers don’t have to backtrack or cover the same ground as other drivers.
“We try to make it very easy on them, the volunteers,” Tirk said. “They do the same job every time, the same route every time.”
Therese Keil, a four-year volunteer with Meals on Wheels, said the organization is “the best organization to volunteer for.”
Randy Mortimer, a three-year volunteer with Meals on Wheels, also said the Wednesday crew was the best, teasing the volunteers of the other days of the week. He also said the work was quick, but satisfying.
“I enjoy coming here every Wednesday,” Mortimer said. “It pretty much takes 15 minutes to pack it all up.”
Miller had five stops to make May 21. His route has a few more people on the list, but clients can put a pause on the service or stop altogether if they want, according to Tirk. Having driven for about 10 years now, Miller also said some clients whom he has delivered to before have moved and some have even died.
Miller loaded a tray with warm meals on it into the back seat of his car, a Prius with 113,000 miles on it. He was able to fit the cooler with cold meals in as well. Some drivers for Meals on Wheels work as a team — one person drives, another takes the meals inside. But Miller has preferred to do both on his own, since he finished training with a longtime driver when he first started with the organization.
The directions to each client’s home also included information on dropping off the meals, which usually involves going into each residence to hand-deliver to the client.
The clients on Miller’s list that day were expecting him and had their doors unlocked for him to enter through after a quick knock. One of the clients on the list asked that the Meals on Wheels drivers just drop the packages off in her garage, but Miller had a short chat with each person who was home during the delivery. One woman even gave him a bag of goodies, which Miller said was her usual way of saying thanks.
“I think she (worked in) food service,” Miller said. “Every day for every driver, not just for me, you get a bag full of all kinds of things. It could be fruit, wrapped food, snacks. She bakes. It's every day. She’s really nice.”
Miller said interacting with the clients is probably his favorite part of volunteering for Meals on Wheels. His last part-time job, which he took after retiring from teaching more than 20 years ago, was as a delivery driver for Edible Arrangements, which earned reactions similar to the clients of Meals on Wheels.
“Who isn’t happy to get food?” Miller said.
Miller said he does the same route pretty much every time he drives, except for the days he substitutes in on a day other than Wednesday for a different driver. Tirk said the organization is always looking for drivers, because substitutes are often needed in the winter, when some regular drivers head south.
Miller said the gig has been a great project for him in retirement, because the deliveries are scheduled for the middle of the work day. But he recommends anyone with time on their hands to give driving a try, because of the positive impact it makes on its clients.
“I have never had one person who wasn’t nice,” Miller said.
