MINNEAPOLIS — Monday through Friday, TRUST Meals on Wheels volunteers meet at Judson Memorial Baptist Church to load their cars with freshly prepared nutritious meals.
The program serves more than 100 clients in south Minneapolis. Leaders say other neighborhood meal groups also serve the area. TRUST Inc. stands for Towards Renewed Unity and Service Together and in addition to Meals on Wheels offers a chore program to help with yard and house work, grocery transportation and other programming.
"I do it once a week," volunteer Linda Ott said while making six deliveries Monday. "Monday is my day off so … I'm not usually on that big of a time crunch. I just think it's a good program."
The TRUST Meals on Wheels program offers hot meals every weekday or frozen meals once per week. Ott has volunteered for around 20 years now.
"It's not as bad when it gets, you know, 50 below windchill," Ott said. "My very first training day, it was like record-setting cold. It was just comical."
Although she prefers summer, the Twin Cities metro is approaching some dangerously hot days this week and Ott is making sure the seniors she serves are safe.
"I really just ask how they're doing today," she said. "You can get a sense if something's up or if they need help with something."
Volunteers may ask clients whether their air conditioning is working at home or if they have any other needs and can direct them to resources or emergency services when needed.
Gloria Loken has lived in Minneapolis since she was in eighth grade. She says it's difficult to get to the grocery store these days and says she appreciates the deliveries as well as the interactions with those bringing meals to her doorstep.
"This is very, very helpful," Loken said. "Sometimes if I'm unable to answer the door or something, they contact my children and say, 'Your mom's not answering, is something wrong?' So it's kind of a good way to keep tabs on some of the senior citizens and make sure they're OK."
Metro-wide, Twin Cities Meals on Wheels programs deliver nearly 1.5 million meals every year, according to its website. Price is based on need.
"They're kind of short of funds so they ask for donations," Loken said. "I do contribute so that way they can reach more people."
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