July 12-13, 2008
This weekend marked the end of weekend deliveries of Friendship Trays. It marks the beginning of another way to ensure that recipients needing meals seven days a week will be served.
The 14 recipients who saw volunteer drivers on Saturday and Sunday last weekend received three chilled meals from their driver on Friday. The chilled meals can be safely refrigerated for up to five days.
Executive Director Lucy Bush
Carter said that Presbyterian Hospital initiated the weekend meal
delivery program in the 1980s as part of its Senior Care Network. When
Presbyterian wanted to shut the service down, Friendship Trays took over
the caseload. Friendship Trays began delivering meals on weekdays in
1976.
Carter said there were about 50 weekend recipients in the late '90s and more before that. At one time, Friendship Trays employed a person part time to manage the weekend deliveries. Meals were prepared at Mercy Hospital on Vail Avenue. In recent years, participation has dwindled.
Carter said most recipients can count on relatives or neighbors to look in on them and provide meals on weekends. For those who don't have access to food, the Friday deliveries will ensure a healthy diet.
The change was made possible by the conversion earlier this year from delivery of hot meals to delivery of chilled meals. The conversion, completed April 16, provides recipients with a tray of food that was quick-chilled, not frozen, right after cooking. The process locks in more flavor and nutrients, and allows the meal to be refrigerated in the sealed tray until it is time to reheat it for eating.
The cessation of weekend deliveries fits in with current efforts at Friendship Trays to reduce energy consumption, particularly high-priced gasoline, and the organization's ongoing focus on being mindful of the value of its volunteers' time. The 14 weekend recipients were spread across the city and were served on five routes, each with a driver. A weekday route often serves 10 recipients.
But as important as gasoline and volunteers' time are, they are secondary at a nonprofit whose mission is serving people "who are unable, because of age or infirmity, to obtain and prepare their own meal."
Carter remembers the recipient only as "Mr. White."
In his late 90s, Mr. White received weekday meals from Friendship Trays. Mr. White was unwell, and spent much of his time in bed.
One weekend, he was so weak that he could not get out of bed all weekend. No one came to visit, so he did not eat. And he had no water at his bedside. By Monday lunch when Carter delivered his Friendship Trays meal, he was so dehydrated he required the attention of medics.
Carter made sure after that incident that Mr. White was enrolled in the weekend meal program. And she has been a staunch supporter of the weekend program ever since.
"Some of our recipients will always need our help over the weekend. We will find a way."
Carter said Providence United Methodist Church has been independently delivering a few weekend meals in Southside Homes off South Tryon Street. Mercy Hospital also cooks those meals. There may be other groups delivering in the community as well. "If someone absolutely needed the daily contact, we perhaps could work out deliveries with one of those groups," Carter said.
Three Charlotte congregations have been deeply involved in Friendship Trays' weekend program, and each has had a dedicated coordinator who found volunteers and monitored deliveries. Carter recognized Mary King at Mount Carmel Baptist, Gertrude Scott at University Park Baptist, and Gloria McClain at University Park Baptist. "They have been champions," Carter said.