As always, there’s lots going on at Meals on Wheels, and the end of summer seems to bring a flurry of activity here. Our excellent crew of volunteers, Site Managers, Cooks, and other staff work tirelessly to make sure that every senior is fed. There are always menus to plan, meals to cook, reports to complete, clients to visit, dishes to wash, and volunteers to thank, all critical tasks to successfully providing meal service.
In addition to our routine duties, staff also works hard on the various projects that enhance our service and help provide funding for our program. Just some of the projects currently in progress or planning are:
• Double the Dollars Challenge: Gesa Credit Union is matching donations up to $10,000! We’ll have more to announce about those donations in the next couple months.
• OktoberFeast Fun Run: We’ve moved our March Fun Run into a more temperate month and paired it with Octoberfest for a fun, family-friendly, casual event, complete with German sausage, pretzels, beer, and root beer! The event starts and ends at our Meals on Wheels Café in Richland.
• New Freezer Building: The building is complete and the freezer nearly operational, which means that we’ll soon be producing our own frozen meals for holidays and weekends.
• Taco Tuesday: Our Kitchen and Café staff are trying out Taco Tuesday on September 10th as an extra meal option in the Café. If the launch is successful, Taco Tuesday may expand to other locations.
• Annual Survey: Our 2019 Client Satisfaction Survey will be distributed in October to help us improve our services and adapt to changing needs.
• Emergency Meals: We’ll soon be putting together our boxes of emergency meals for our home delivery clients to use in the event of bad weather or other unplanned Meals on Wheels closures.
• October All-Staff Training: We close twice each year for mandatory staff training, and October 14th will be a closure date for us. Frozen meals will be delivered in advance for home delivery clients.
• Connell Fall Festival: Our fun and versatile Subaru Outback will roll down the streets of Connell for the popular parade and festival on September 14th, thanks to our Connell staff and volunteers.
We are so grateful for the support of our community and our hard-working volunteers and staff who allow us to try new things and better serve our seniors.
Kristi Thien
Nutrition Services Director
