● Meals on wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg ●
A Friendship Trays History
As
remembered by
Ann Elliot
The text below is taken from a document prepared by Ann Elliot, Friendship Trays' first staff director, in 2009 to explain to younger members of her home church, St. Martin's Episcopal Church, about their parish's role in launching and growing Friendship Trays in the period from the mid-1970s until the meals-on-wheels program outgrew its space at St. Martin's and moved to Distribution Street in 1996.
In the latter part of the 1960s, I found myself to be mission board chairman on the St. Martin’s Parish Council – minus a committee. For the past number of years we had operated a kindergarten for children of the neighborhood, tuition $1 a week. The director was employed and the rest of the staff were volunteer church members. With the start of public kindergarten, however, the need for our kindergarten no longer existed. The search was commenced for a worthwhile mission. I had been impressed by a young man in our parish, Tom Bradbury, an editor of the Charlotte News, and I asked him to join me.
Tom and I both felt there were challenges in the Elizabeth neighborhood. We visited the Mecklenburg Planning Board and discovered that the average age of residents there at that time was the oldest in the county. St. Martin’s had decreased in size, and few of our members lived in the immediate area. Help was needed! We invited representatives from the three other old churches in Elizabeth, including the clergy, to gather and explore our cooperative possibilities and challenges. Each accepted. Out of that gathering was formed the Elizabeth Neighborhood Service Organization (ENSO), whose purpose was to enable the churches to be better neighbors in this geographic area. Tom was appointed president of ENSO. For a length of time, probably a year, we met once a month. Across church lines, we became a very cohesive group.
In the early 1970s we established at
St. Martin’s a very successful once-a-month luncheon program.
The four churches took turns in the planning and implementation
of the meals, and all four churches supplied volunteers. The
luncheons were held at St. Martin’s. At one point, we had become
so popular that we had a regular attendance of 100 to 125.
Eventually, we invited Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic
Church in Chantilly to join us. Elizabethan Luncheons proved to
be a happy venture for all concerned.
From the first we knew there was another more pressing need, i.e., serving those individuals who were unable to prepare or procure meals. ENSO conducted two neighborhood surveys on the feasibility of a delivered-meals program, and Tom and I were directed to examine nongovernment-supported meals-on-wheels programs in other communities. This we did in Winston-Salem, Asheboro, Greensboro and Raleigh, among others. We successfully approached Mercy Hospital about supplying our meals, organized coordinators in each church, as well as deliverers, named the program Friendship Trays, since neighborliness was a strong goal, and with some fear and trepidation, but also excitement, launched our service in October 1976!
At that time our mission was intended for Elizabeth only. My memory is that we had six recipients initially. St. John’s Baptist’s sexton brought our food to the basement entrance of Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian, from which we dealt it to volunteer deliverers each weekday. Often on snow days the clergy helped with the deliveries. Many names are engraved on my memory, from all parishes. Our rector’s wife, Bee Sherman, was present from day one, as was the counsel and support of our rector, Bart Sherman.
At that stage, the program was
entirely volunteer, including the director and Tom Bradbury, who
was a constant adviser. In the fall of 1977, however, we were at
a crossroads. We found it most difficult to set geographic
limits on such a service. It was decided to convene a meeting of
the churches whose members were either volunteers or recipients.
We asked both clergy and laity to attend. Bart Sherman, Chuck
Kirby, Bob Lasater, Julian Cave, Doug Oldenburg, Frank Vest, Phil DeBerry, Fr. Joe Mulligan
and Bishop Gary Gloster, all clergy, were particularly helpful. The
decision we grappled with was whether to draw back to our
original boundaries or to strive to expand to cover the need. To
do the latter, we would need increased financial and volunteer
assistance. At that meeting, the second option was
overwhelmingly supported.
The decision led to the incorporation of Friendship Trays as of March 28, 1978, the establishment of a board, and the employment of a director. For some time the director was the only paid employee. Two of the eight directors were St. Martin’s parishioners, and over the years three St. Martin’s parishioners have served as board chairs. Countless other St. Martin’s parishioners have volunteered. Steve Johnston of St. Martin’s now serves on the Friendship Trays staff.
For many months the Friendship Trays “office” was a cardboard box toted around by the director. Subsequently, St. Martin’s offered Friendship Trays a small room on the lower floor of the church’s parish hall. Great wisdom and advice on business procedures were continually offered by Frances McSwain, then St. Martin’s parish assistant. The Rev. Bart Sherman was unstinting in his support and encouragement. Truly, Friendship Trays would never have originated or continued without the dedication of the St. Martin’s parish
Meanwhile, our meal sources had
grown to six health institutions. Our volunteers picked up
plates at those locations. Quality control became something of a
problem. At that time, St. Martin’s was remodeling the parish
building. Upon request from Friendship Trays, the vestry signed
in 1989 a seven-year agreement that allowed the organization to
raise the more than $80,000 required to remodel the church
kitchen to create a place where Friendship Trays could prepare
all the meals. For five years after the kitchen was ready, all
meals emanated from St. Martin’s. And for many, St. Martin’s
Kitchen will always be “Friendship Kitchen.”
By the mid-1990s, ever-increasing community demand for Friendship Trays meals resulted in the need to move again. The church kitchen was big enough to produce about 500 meals a day, but we were approaching that limit. This time, Friendship Trays raised about $350,000 to convert for office and kitchen use the current warehouse site on Distribution Street off Remount Road. Use of the warehouse space continues to be donated by former Friendship Trays board chair and Covenant Presbyterian Church member Bruce Parker.
At the present time Friendship Trays has more than 800 recipients. The count of meals served each day varies in the range of 590 to 720 meals. Meals follow doctor-prescribed diets, and as much as possible accommodate the food preferences of individual recipients. The program stays focused on the twin goals of delivering both nutritious food and the warm and caring relationships that sustain good health.
The longevity of our volunteers’ involvement is remarkable. There are two reason for it. One: Food and friendship attract volunteers who truly care. Two: We attract people who value the fact that life is a wee bit better because their paths led that way in direct service.
In June 2009, Grace Strickhouser of
Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian Church died in her 90s. As far as
I can remember, she, along with Bee Sherman, St. Martin’s
rector’s wife, and Janelle Lowery of St. Martin’s, Lalla Gribble
of Myers Park Baptist, Maud and Cates Snell of St. John's
Baptist, Anne Bishop of Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian, Suzette
Saule of Hawthorne Methodist and Rae Marx of Our Lady of the Assumption
Catholic Church, were in the group of our first volunteers.
While over the years many volunteers have been procured through churches, many other volunteers have been located through friendship or families. A case in point:
Lalla and Rex Gribble and John Elliot (Pinky) were early participants in the service. Lalla, a close friend of one of the founders, served as a first board member, was later board chair, and then served as board member emeritus. At a later point, Lalla brought her church, Myers Park Baptist, into active service in Friendship Trays. Now their son, Skip Gribble, is board chair and their grandson-in-law is on the board. Recently my granddaughter, Sheldon Currier, was added to the board.