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Early in December, Meals on Wheels of Suffolk and Isle of White partnered with the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office to provide seniors with something extra during the holiday season. 

Sheriff David Miles said this is the second time they’ve done their annual Santa for Seniors program, and donations more than doubled from last year. Some of the senior-specific items donated were toothpaste, sensitive skin toiletries, hats, gloves, scarves, and blankets in addition to animal food and supplies.

“A lot of our shut-in senior community also are pet owners, and we wanted to make sure that their fur babies were taken care of as well,” Miles said.

He continued to say that because donations were so high compared to last year, and they got so much encouraging feedback, they will definitely continue the Santa for Seniors program.

The Meals on Wheels of Suffolk and Isle of White Executive Director, Jennifer Homan, said with the donations from the Sheriff’s Office they create gift bags to deliver with their regularly scheduled meals.

Homan said the gift bags were a big hit last year and everyone was surprised to receive them. With there being so many more donations this year, Homan said the seniors are going to be “blown away.” 

“This means the world to us, that we’re able to do this, and our clients are absolutely gonna love it, and our volunteers enjoy it,” Homan said. “They get to give these gifts. It really, you know, it fills your bucket to do this kind of thing.”

Meals on Wheels of Suffolk and Isle of White is part of the national Meals on Wheels of America program. Meals on Wheels aims to bring meals to those who are unable to make meals for themselves — seniors, people with disabilities, and those in temporary situations like recovering from surgery. 

Homan said 97% of their clients are over 60, with the rest being people with intellectual disabilities. They currently have about 125 clients and are on track to serve around 39,000 meals this year. 

Each delivery unit costs $8 and clients get two meals and two beverages. Since Meals on Wheels operates out of Sentara Obici Hospital, the hospital makes the meals which allows them to cater toward different diets, like people with diabetes, Homan said. 

While the main objective of Meals on Wheels is to provide food, Homan said they often end up doing much more than that. With the meal delivery also comes a safety check, she said, and it helps combat social isolation. They can also help seniors connect to other resources, like help with transportation or getting books from the library.

Homan described a couple they served a couple years ago. The husband had a stroke and was paralyzed on one side of his body and the wife had become very ill. Homan said because of Meals on Wheels, the couple was able to stay together in their home when the wife ended up passing.

“Sometimes it just seems like maybe we’re delivering meals, but we’re also delivering stability, socialization, [and] connections,” Homan said. “That is so incredibly important, you know, for people to be able to have that kind of time together, towards the end, especially.”

Ashley McDougal has been volunteering on and off for Meals on Wheels ever since she was a girl scout. She said she’s personally witnessed a lot of those additional positives to meal delivery.

“It’s giving opportunity to people that don’t have it, and giving them the feeling [of being] comfortable in their own home and not feeling like they’re isolated,” McDougal said. “It’s more than just providing meals for them, which is nourishment, but it’s also providing that community that these people need that they don’t get because they’re isolated from the world.”

McDougal also said she enjoys volunteering because it gives her some respite from her own busy, fast paced life. She said there’s one lady she often delivers to who she knows to set aside extra time for because they always have long conversations about God and the Bible.

“If I just sat still with her for just a moment, I would learn so much more than in the 20 minutes that I’d be running around town,” she said. “It’s a good reminder for me to just relish the moments, because there’s lots of wisdom that gets shared in those comments and those conversations.”

Homan said she hopes to continue partnering with the Sheriff’s Office through their Santa for Seniors program and she would love to partner with other organizations in the community so they can provide things other than meals more often. She said on average, only 3% of philanthropic dollars go toward seniors. 

“Our seniors, there is so much to learn from them,” Homan said. “I just think it’s important to remember that they have so much value in our community too, even if they’re not the face we always see.”