SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (AP) — More than 37 years ago, several Summerville residents realized a nutritional meal was a luxury many elderly people in the community struggled to get.
Now, 217 of those residents in town look to Meals on Wheels of Summerville as a necessary resource.
“It’s our connection to the outside world,” said Maria Glover, a 61-year-old Summerville resident and longtime Meals on Wheels recipient. “They’re almost like a second family.”
Having access to nutritional food is a huge privilege whether in the midst of a pandemic or not. Nearly 20 percent of adults ages 60 and older in South Carolina faced the threat of hunger in 2019, according to the United Health Foundation.
Meals on Wheels of Summerville has been helping fulfill the need since June of 1982. The organization has delivered thousands of pounds of food since its inception — more than 130,000 pounds of food have been distributed in town during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group is also completely community supported.
Hundreds of volunteers have come through the organization delivering food to residents throughout the years. Its current executive director, Crystal Bovell, was one of those volunteers.
“You just immediately connect with the mission,” Bovell said.
During the holiday season, volunteers with the organization managed to rally together to make sure recipients received an additional Christmas gift with cookies and blankets. Bovell said they initially didn’t have enough resources to do so.
The success of the holiday gift ended up being a reminder of just how much the community sees the value of supporting the organization in its nearly 40-year mission, she said.
STARTING WITH A NEIGHBOR
For a lot of people with Meals on Wheels of Summerville, their connection to the program started with a neighbor.
That’s how Bovell found out about volunteering for the organization. It’s also how Glover learned about the resource.
She had moved to Summerville a few years ago from Charleston. Her Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher listed Summerville as a place she could stay.
She also has a couple of sisters who live in the area.
“At first I didn’t want to come,” Glover said.
She’s disabled and said transportation wasn’t as accessible as it had been for her in the Charleston area.
She didn’t really know anyone in her neighborhood either. But one of her neighbors soon gave her the number to Meals on Wheels of Summerville.
It ended up being the connection and resource she said she needed to make her current residence a forever home.
“I’ve only been a client for a couple of years,” she said, “but the organization is very, very helpful.”
Meals on Wheels of Summerville delivers five pre-prepared meals a week that only need to be warmed up. For some elderly residents who are more sedentary or may not be able to do things because of a disability, the program has become vital.
“It’s just been such a help to me,” said Charles Moss, an 82-year-old meal recipient. “I could never cook things to start with.”
Moss is legally blind and has a wife who is living in a nursing facility. A neighbor who was a volunteer delivery person with Meals on Wheels of Summerville told him about the program.
Moss said he was hesitant at first and resisted reaching out to the organization for a long time. Eventually, with his wife no longer living at home, he consulted his doctor and they agreed it would be a good idea.
He’s been a recipient for a little over a year now.
Bovell said the organization was created in 1982 when local churches and doctors realized that a lot of their community members were routinely in hospitals because of problems around nutrition.
But it doesn’t end at the food. Glover said the biggest thing for her is the personal connection. One of her favorite parts is that volunteers remember her birthday.
They’re always personable and try to connect with her, she said.
“They seem like they know me forever, and it really makes me feel special,” she said.
That may seem small to some people, she said, but for those who don’t have a routine connection to the outside community it’s huge.
Both Glover and Moss have also donated to Meals on Wheels of Summerville to further emphasize their appreciation for the organization.
Glover said it’s a small price to pay for what they give back to her.
LOST CONNECTIONS
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Meals on Wheels of Summerville has gone from delivering food five days a week to handing out five days worth of meals on Mondays.
The coronavirus has also made the experience with the program a little different. Volunteer meal deliverers can’t sit and chat the way they are used to with recipients.
“We’re all trying to navigate through this,” Bovell said. “A big part of this is the emotional hardship.”
The biggest shift came with the delivery drivers. Most of the volunteer drivers with the program were older Summerville community members.
With COVID-19 being more of a health risk for the elderly community, organizers said it was safer to avoid asking them to make deliveries.
This was also paired with the program seeing an initial influx in recipients with more community members isolating at home.
Dale St. Pierre is a 73-year-old volunteer who helps prepare and organize the food. Before the pandemic, he delivered the meals.
“You deliver to the same folks for years and years,” he said. “You miss those folks.”
Getting all of the meals prepared and making all of the deliveries in one day is challenging, but St. Pierre said it’s worth it. He has been working with the organization since 1996 and remembers some of the founders.
Without Meals on Wheels, many of the people they help wouldn’t have a way of getting a warm meal every day, he said. That’s why he hopes to see the organization expand and have more people provide support.
After going from a volunteer to the executive director, Bovell said she learned more about what it takes to do what the organization does.
She also realized how valuable the Summerville community has been in making sure that program stays active. She said that thankfully during the summer, when organizers thought they would be short of volunteers, teachers and other young community members stepped up to help.
She is looking forward to the post-pandemic days when they can get back to connecting with more recipients.
“We’re talking partnerships that have been around since 1982,” she said. “It’s a privilege, truly.”
