San Antonio.- Spring Break is here! While many are enjoying time at the beach or relaxing at home, some students have volunteered their time to help fill in delivery routes left by others who took off for vacation.
Meals on Wheels of San Antonio’s4th Annual “Schools Spring to Deliver Meals”, has recruited over 90 students and teachers from the area schools to help complete the routes left open. This ensures that homebound seniors in the community will still receive a hot nutritious meal.
“We’re fortunate and blessed enough to have plenty of volunteers come help out. Volunteers are the backbone of Meals on Wheels. We deliver 900,000 meals a year and 45 percent of them are delivered by volunteers,” Jerry Arellano, director of Marketing & Communications for Christian Senior Services said. “Without them, we couldn’t deliver as many. It really speaks for the community that people are so willing to help out,”
Volunteering is beneficial for students as well. Rob Schliffer’s Troop 843 Girl Scouts all unanimously decided this was the best way to spend their Spring Break.
“I feel happy. I would rather be helping out the community. If I wasn’t doing this, I’d just be at home watching T.V all day. It feels good,” 11-year old McKenzie Schliffer said.
Not only are these students delivering healthy food, but help combat loneliness. Many times, these homebound seniors began to feel depressed and isolated: which may lead to worsened health conditions.
It’s been a good while since Angie Castillo has been out of the house. She doesn’t drive and she only goes out when someone comes for her. Her son works at the State Capitol and doesn’t come by to see her as much as he used to. She seldom receives visitors.
Knock on the screen door of Angie Castillo’s house however, and she will open the door with a smile on her face. When local UTSA students gave her a visit to deliver a meal, she was beaming with joy.
“I never have any visitors and to see these children bringing food brightens my day. I’ve never had so many people in my house! I only wish they would stay longer, maybe we could sit outside and have a little picnic. That would be so nice.” Castillo said.
Meals on Wheels is only one aspect of the many services that Christian Senior Services has. They offer many programs that benefit seniors such as companionship services, Alzheimer’s day care and caregiving. Christian Senior Services is always looking for volunteers and donations. If you would like to donate some time or money to the program, call (210) 735-5115 or visit www.christianseniorservices.org.
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