Waldport-area Meals on Wheels “desperately” needs volunteers to help in kitchen or deliver food to homebound residents

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com

WALDPORT — More than 60 people from Yachats to Seal Rock and up Oregon Highway 34 depend on Meals on Wheels to provide warm mid-day meals three times a week.

But a shortage of volunteers has spurred an urgent call for more helpers – and possibly put the viability of the operation into question.

Based at the Waldport Community Center, the agency overseeing Meals on Wheels has “a concern about the sustainability of the program,” said program director Randi Moore with the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments.

The meals program is the largest offered in the region by the Albany-based organization, serving seniors over 60 years of age and their spouses with both on-site meals and home delivery in Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties. People with disabilities who are under 60, and Native Americans over 55 are also eligible.

The Waldport operation maintains sit-down service on Mondays and Fridays; Wednesday service will be available in October when the weekly outdoor market ends. Home delivery is provided to recipients on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Recipients are asked to donate what they can, if anything, to help offset costs.

“Without our dedicated volunteers it would be impossible to pay for the work force hours needed to package, serve and deliver the 11,552 meals that were provided” by the Waldport site in fiscal 2021-22, Moore said. Federal and state funding sources, she said, cover only a part of the ongoing cost of operating Meals on Wheels.

After a Yachats volunteer described the Waldport operation as “desperately short of volunteers” on social media, Waldport site manager Nicole Person said she needs two types of volunteers — delivery drivers and kitchen staff.

“Volunteers in the kitchen portion out the meals, pack them for each consumer and then plate the hot entrees in trays for delivery by the drivers,” Person said in an email. Then, “we prepare for dining room service … and bring the food out to our diners. And then we clean up.”

Person said she needs two kitchen workers for each of the three days Meals on Wheels serves. Volunteers arrive between 9-9:30 a.m. and can expect to be done by 12:30-1 p.m. Drivers are also wanted for three different routes to deliver meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Volunteers can pitch in for one day, two or all three.

People interested may call Person at 541-563-8796. She said she’s at the Waldport Community Center, 265 N.W. Hemlock St. from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays and Fridays.

In addition to the Waldport operation, the Lincoln County program also includes sites in Newport, Toledo, Siletz and Lincoln City.