More Than a Meal: What Jean Taught Us About Community
Volunteers: Hank, Jacque, Melissa, Terry, & Janine celebrating with Jean.
When people ask me about Meals on Wheels of Loveland and Berthoud, it is easy to start with the numbers.
In any one week, 170 volunteers make 1,659+ deliveries to 417 or more of our neighbors who are homebound and need a meal. That is 1,659 doors knocked on and 1,659 moments of direct contact. But true health and well-being are about so much more than nutrition. Over half the people we deliver to live alone, and research shows that chronic social isolation carries health risks equivalent to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Plenty of places can deliver food to a doorstep. What we strive to deliver every single weekday is warm friendship, genuine presence, and trust.
Nothing illustrates that quite like a long-time meal recipient, Jean.
Jean was 97 years old and a client of ours for years. Ask any volunteer who delivered to her, and they would tell you the same thing: Jean was a delight and a favorite to visit.
Last November, her regular Friday driver, Hank, asked Jean what she was doing for her birthday. When she mentioned she had no plans to celebrate, Hank reached out to the four other drivers on Jean's route, Route 18. Because they deliver on different weekdays, their paths rarely cross. Well, until Jean. Together, they coordinated food, decorations, and a birthday gift of a beautiful hummingbird print. When they surprised Jean on her birthday, she shared that in all of her 97 years, this was her first surprise party.
What I love most about that gathering is what Jean gave back. Five drivers who rarely saw each other came together, shared stories, and built their own lasting friendships. Jean did not just receive community that day. She created it.
Jean passed away in May. Her son Jerry gifted that hummingbird print back to hang in our building, so her memory stays on our wall. Like our drivers return every day to deliver, hummingbirds consistently return to the same flowers for nutrients.