Volunteers deliver meals to seniors

Fewer than a dozen people sit at a table chatting and laughing at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center, waiting for a call notifying them the food for their homebound meals route is ready to be loaded.

It's cold, and some city roads remained iced over from winter weather that hit the area earlier in the week.

The delivery of hot meals to those who use the senior center's homebound meal program was more hectic than usual because weather closed the center the two previous days. Seniors on the routes have not yet received milk they normally get. The milk must be delivered today.

Mike and June Readnour have lived in Cape Girardeau for about 45 years and have volunteered to deliver meals to homebound seniors for the senior center every Wednesday for about a year.

The couple carries large red coolers filled with plastic boxes numbered with a 1 or 2 to a minivan behind the center. Dr. Kirk Bowman helps load the minivan, carrying two coolers at once across the partly iced parking lot.

Dr. Kirk Bowman carries two coolers full of food out the delivery van for the Cape Girardeau Senior Center's homebound meals program Wednesday. (Laura Simon)

The Readnours always work the North route on Wednesdays.

"If they have dogs, we give them doggy biscuits," June Readnour said, a box of the biscuits sitting in the front seat. The dog biscuits are his wife's project, Mike Readnour said.

The couple has a system for deliveries, placing coolers with hot food behind the front seats so they have only to reach back and open the lid to grab a meal labeled with a number matching the meal the client chose from a menu sent earlier.

"Most everybody's getting a two today," Mike Readnour said of the popular meal choice.

June Readnour readies each meal, complete with a dog treat and milk, as her husband navigates the route.

Mike Readnour gathers carry-out boxes, a carton of milk and a dog bisquit from his wife June, to deliver to one of many seniors on their homebound meal route Wednesday. The Readnour's deliver food to seniors through the Cape Girardeau Senior Center's homebound meals program. (Laura Simon)

"We like this because it's something we can do together," she said.

As homes are reached, the couple decides, depending on the condition of the path from the van to the client's door, who will walk the food to the house. Mike Readour recently had a hip replacement.

The drop-offs go quickly, as many clients or their caretakers wait at the door or nearby.

There are 30 stops on their route, and six are not on the day's route for varying reasons, June Readour said, which may include doctor's appointments or visiting family members.

There are about 200 people on the homebound meal delivery route who receive hot food Monday through Friday, said Susan McClanahan, administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. The homebound meal program through the senior center is the only such program in the city.

June Readnour on Wednesday carries a cooler of food to the minivan she and her husband use to deliver meals to seniors as part of the Cape Girardeau Senior Center's homebound meals program. (Laura Simon)

Homebound meal routes cover the north, south, central, east and west parts of the city, and a county delivery route delivers meals to those in rural areas such as Gordonville, Allenville, Whitewater and Delta.

To qualify for the program, seniors must be 60 or older and be homebound, meaning they are not able to leave their house, McClanahan said.

Some homebound individuals are on a route for a short time as they recover from a medical issue such as a surgery or stroke, she said.

Others are "chronically homebound" and stay on routes for years, McClanahan said. Those who are chronically homebound may have severe arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, blindness or a mental illness.

The center suffers from a shortage of volunteers such as the Readours, McClanahan said.

"And it's almost every day we typically run short-handed," she said. " ... It's just so hard to get people to come and volunteer,"

The senior center uses 20 volunteers a day, which include two volunteers on each of the six delivery routes, and volunteers in the kitchen who help pack the meals to be delivered as well as serve seniors who come to the center to eat the meals.

Most of the delivery volunteers are retirees, McClanahan said.

The cost of each meal runs about $6, she said, and the center suggests those who eat the meals contribute $3, whether they come to the center to eat or have their meals delivered.

"If they are not homebound, we want them to come here," McClanahan said. "It's good for people to get out of bed and get their clothes on and be with other people. Socialization and fellowship is very important to senior adults."

June Readnour and McClanahan agreed the people on the homebound meal routes are their favorite part of the program.

"When I say that we fall in love with them, we really do," McClanahan said. " ... They become a part of our family."

The work put in by those at the senior center does not go unnoticed by those who use the program and who often are watching for the minivan holding their hot meal to pull up to their home.

"When it's bitter cold or snowing, and we're delivering and the meal recipient gives you a hug and says, 'Thank you for coming,' that means a lot," McClanahan said. "It's that sense of appreciation, I guess. It just makes it all worthwhile."

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

921 N. Clark St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.