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Syracuse Meals On Wheels Needs Volunteers Syracuse Meals On Wheels Needs Volunteers

By Dylan Johnson

Bob Dougherty: They expect to get their food, and so somebody’s gotta get it there.

Dylan Johnson: Bob Dougherty is a retired probation officer who has been volunteering here since March twenty-twenty.
They recently went back to delivering meals five days a week for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s made it harder to get enough volunteers, forcing Dougherty to pick up a couple of extra routes on top of his original one.

Dougherty: You know it’s funny I actually knew a person who was doing one of the routes and she was sick. And I didn’t put two and two together but then I ended up doing her route.

Johnson: They deliver 800 meals through 30 different routes every day, a logistical challenge. The organization says it’s already tough to find volunteer drivers this time of year because the majority are students or retiree’s who leave for the holidays.
Combine it with last second call-outs because of things like illness and it becomes a scramble to get the meals to those in need.

Dougherty: I wouldn’t want to be the one coordinating it because I’d screw it up for sure.

Johnson: And It’s not just Dougherty and others who are out making sure people get those meals delivered, it’s also the full-time staff here inside the meals on wheels offices.

Michael Nortman: Everybody steps up if they need to. The executive director will go out and deliver meals if they have to.

Johnson: Nortman himself goes out and delivers meals each week to help fill the gaps.
But when the staff have to go out and deliver meals, it takes them away from their full-time responsibilities.
He says since it’s not an option to just not get the meals to the people who need them, there’s really no other choice.

Nortman: The bottom line is that the clients are gonna get fed one way or another, even if the staff has to do it.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Meals on Wheels in Syracuse is struggling to find enough volunteer drivers to deliver the food since it went back to five days a week last month, so much so that full-time staff has to help out with delivering meals.

“Everybody steps up if they need to,” said Michael Nortman, community relations director. “The executive director will go out and deliver meals if they have to.”

Even though that pulls staff away from their responsibilities, Nortman says there isn’t really any other choice.

“The bottom line is that the clients are gonna get fed one way or another, even if the staff has to do it,” Nortman said.

Meals on Wheels went to three-day-a-week delivery last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time of year is already difficult for the organization, Nortman says, because most of its volunteers are students or retired people who leave for the holidays.

Bob Dougherty, a retired probation officer and former member of the Syracuse Common Council, has been volunteering with Meals on Wheels since March of last year. He’s one of many volunteers who are picking up extra routes to compensate for the low volunteer numbers.

“(The clients) expect to get their food, and so somebody has gotta get it there,” Dougherty said.

The non-profit group:

  • Delivers about 800 meals a day.
  • Has 30 different routes to deliver those meals, and prefers to keep volunteers to one route each.
  • Needs 150 drivers each week.

That’s difficult enough to organize without factoring in last-minute cancellations because of things like illness.

“I wouldn’t want to be the one coordinating it because I’d screw it up for sure,” Dougherty said.

The number of volunteers it’s short by is different each week but has been as many as nine people this fall. That’s when veteran drivers such as Dougherty get asked to pick up a couple of routes and staff get involved.

“You know it’s funny I actually knew a person who was doing one of the routes and she was sick,” Dougherty said. “And I didn’t put two and two together but then I ended up doing her route.”

Anyone interested in volunteering with Meals on Wheels can sign up on the website. 

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