● Meals on wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg ●
The
Friendship Trays story
On October 4, 1976, a handful of volunteers delivered six meals to elderly residents who could not leave their homes in the Elizabeth neighborhood of Charlotte. That first Friendship Trays delivery was the result of five area churches recognizing that there was an emerging need in their community.
Determined to assist those who could not procure or prepare a hot meal for themselves, members of Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne Lane United Methodist Church, Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church, St. John’s Baptist Church, and St. Martin’s Episcopal Church began the Friendship Trays program by buying meals from Mercy Hospital and having volunteers deliver them to recipients.
Volunteers delivered much more than food. They delivered a smile, a helping hand, and a daily visit from someone who cared.
Charlotte artist Carla Leaf captured some of the history of Friendship Trays in the 2006 drawing reproduced at right. Included are facades of the first congregations involved; the original aluminum trays used in deliveries. The face is of Sibyl Durant, graduate of the Community Culinary School and kitchen manager of Friendship Trays. The hands are patterned on those of longtime volunteer Ruth Gault.
It soon became clear to those working with Friendship Trays that the need existed well beyond their neighborhood and that, to meet it, they must involve other helpers.
By the fall of 1977, representatives from 30 Charlotte churches met to discuss the issue of expansion. The result of that meeting was the incorporation of Friendship Trays into an independent not-for-profit agency by the spring of 1978. As the area served by Friendship Trays grew, the organization needed a way to provide additional meals. Friendship Trays began buying meals from other health care institutions in addition to Mercy. Presbyterian, Memorial, Charlotte Community Hospitals (later the Magnolia) and the Methodist Home became meal providers.
After thirteen years, the Friendship Trays
board concluded that it would be more efficient and
cost-effective if the program prepared its own meals in-house.
To be able to do that, the program would require its own
kitchen. St. Martin’s offered a facility, which was updated to
meet health and safety standards, and in March 1990, the first
meal prepared by the Friendship Trays staff was delivered from
the Friendship Kitchen.
By 1993, over 700 volunteers largely from area churches and businesses were driving more than 40 routes with six stops each, and there were still more people who needed Friendship Trays’ help. To serve them, the organization would need to be able to prepare additional meals, and there was not enough room at St. Martin’s. Friendship Trays needed a bigger kitchen! As the organization’s leadership considered various possibilities for expansion, the answer came in the form of 5,000 square feet of warehouse space donated by Laura and Bruce Parker. Volunteers launched a capital campaign to pay for design and construction, and in 1996, the Distribution Street kitchen opened. When Mecklenburg County stopped taking new clients in its daily nutrition program, Friendship Trays became the primary meals-on-wheels program in the area.
Today, Friendship Trays has converted all of its home deliveries from hot meals to chilled meals. The food is quickly reduced in temperature after cooking to lock in more nutrients. Recipients report that the meals taste better, and they look better – a key issue among ailing recipients that need that encouragement to eat well and healthfully.
The conversion will allow Friendship Trays to grow without substantial kitchen expansion costs. So today's challenge is is not food capacity but distribution and financial resources. Gas prices are high. Volunteers are busy.
To address the distribution challenges, Friendship Trays partners with the Levine Senior Center, 14 miles away in Matthews, to deliver prepared meals to Levine daily. Volunteers serving recipients in and around Matthews start their routes at Levine, saving gasoline and time. A similar partnership opened in April 2008 at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church campus, which is centrally located to many of the people in northwest Charlotte in need of home-delivered meals.
– – –
Ann Elliot remembers
Friendship Trays' first staff director wrote a history of Friendship Trays in 2009 when she wanted to share with younger members of her home parish, St. Martin's Episcopal Church, about St. Martin's key role in getting Friendship Trays started. Click here to read more.