Friendship Trays co-founder Ann Elliot has been honored by a Washington-based advocacy group for her work as a community champion in Charlotte.

The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging honored Elliot and 27 others at a ceremony June 8. The Community Champion Awards recognize those who use their time and talent to make their community a better place to live.

In nominating Elliot for the award, Executive Director Lucy Bush Carter wrote:

“Seniors would live longer, and stay healthier, if somebody would just look in on them every day and make sure they are eating well.

“For 30 years, Ann Elliot has been that somebody.

“Ann Mauldin Elliot embodies the compassion, energy and tenacity our nation needs in its leaders to achieve good health for all citizens.

“In 1976, while in her 50s, Elliot learned that elderly people near her church lived at home but were unable to fix their daily meals. She co-founded what became Charlotte’s nonprofit meals-on-wheels program. As organizer, then volunteer driver, volunteer executive director, paid executive director and still later as board member, volunteer driver and helper, Elliot has spurred Friendship Trays to grow from serving six recipients daily to nearly 800 daily today. She has brought to every task a unique mix of sweet talk, cajolery, inspiration and appeal to the best in every person she meets.

“Today, in her 80s, Elliot remains devoted to the task. She drives a route twice a month. And recently she cajoled residents in her senior citizens community into spending an afternoon a week at Friendship Trays, together sorting bags and labeling meal trays for the following day.

“Together. It’s long been Elliot’s approach to solving community problems.

“Together meant engaging congregations across sectarian boundaries to provide the funds and the volunteers to deliver meals to shut-ins and the infirm of all faiths living in the shadows of their steeples.

“Together meant creating a welcoming organization enlisting people across lines of race and class in a combined effort to feed all in need, whatever their ability to pay.

“And together meant that the meals-on-wheels program would not choose among the multiple needs of recipients, serving one and ignoring others. Friendship Trays drivers were not just to drop off nutritious food, as important as that is, but were to greet recipients, check on their health, and offer every one the smile that raises spirits and stimulates a positive, healthful outlook.

"Ann Elliot insisted all along that all this was possible. She continues to prove it every week.”

Friendship Trays and its volunteers play a key community role by helping senior citizens “age in place” – which is not only the most cost-effective solution, but the one where seniors are most comfortable and where they can remain tied to families and engaged in their communities.