ROANOKE, Va. – “We have two containers of food. OK. One is either going to be hot food or cold food,” explains T.J. Hall, a volunteer for the Local Office on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program.
“It makes you feel good,” Hall said as he packed up his personal car with a number of meals to be delivered this day in Northwest Roanoke — a process that will take about an hour. Though the non-profit would probably reimburse him for his gas and mileage, he won’t ask for it. It’s just another way to give back to the cause.
We pull up to a home where one of the meal recipients, Hall said is likely to want to talk to the news media. He’s right.
“Good morning. Good morning! How are you this morning? This is John Carlin from Channel 10,” Hall said, introducing me to Joyce Dean who lives alone and has trouble walking any distance without a cane.
”It’s good to have someone come and bring me some nourishing food...I enjoy that. I enjoy talking to the people that come,” Dean said. “I have trouble seeing. I don’t hear real well. And I usually have to use a cane to go out.”
I rode with T.J. as he delivered meals to 13 people for the Meals on Wheels program from the Local Office on Aging. It’s clear it makes a difference.
T.J. is 85 himself. A retired lawyer whose late wife of nearly 60 years started delivering meals years ago.
“She died September 24, 2018,” Hall said before pausing a moment to regain his composure. “I still miss her. 59 years and nine months. I’m carrying on her legacy.”
81-year-old Navy veteran Kenneth Moses is another stop. He was shot down twice near Da Nang in the Vietnam War. Now he spends most days watching TV in his living room. There is a row of medical oxygen bottles under the television.
“I can’t walk no further than the street there where your car is sitting,” he said. “Then I gotta stop catch my breath and get back in the house and sit down where I got the oxygen.”
From house, to house, to house.
“I like to make them feel somebody cares. It helps them feel better,” he said.
Hall delivers Meals on Wheels 5 days a week — because he wants to. He’s a volunteer — one of many. But there are not nearly enough. He and the office on aging need more.
“Most of my clients are younger than me,” Hall said.
The Local Office on Aging is looking for more volunteers. The organization is using the anniversary of the Older Americans Act, which in 1972 was amended to include a nutrition program for Americans 60 and older. The organization serves 40,000 seniors in the Counties or Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig and Alleghany and the Cities of Roanoke, Salem and Covington. Those interested in volunteering or making a donation should contact the Local Office on Aging at (540) 345-0451.