Touring with Meals on Wheels

About a year ago, Debbie Hervol and a friend were hiking near Whitefish on a cold, wet day when they decided to pop into the senior center to eat their lunch.

She was so impressed with the operation that when she came home to Columbia Falls, she asked the senior center here if they needed any volunteer help.

“I asked if they needed a driver to deliver meals,” Hervol said last week. “They said yes, they always need drivers.”

Since then, Hervol’s been donating her time one day a week to deliver meals to housebound folks through the Meals on Wheels program. Born and raised in Columbia Falls, giving back to the community is something she enjoys doing.

Every Wednesday about 11:15 a.m., Hervol loads up her rig with ready-to-eat trays of food and heads out to deliver them. On this cold day before Thanksgiving, she made 16 stops, chatting with folks as she made her deliveries.

Everyone gets one hot meal, plus milk and dessert. In addition, some people get frozen meals to help get them through the holiday and the weekend.

For many folks, a visit from the Meals of Wheels driver is the only social interaction they get. Many people are infirm and simply don’t get out of the house unless someone takes them.

“I just give them a smile and let them know I love doing it for them,” Hervol said.

Countywide, the program will deliver about 77,000 meals this year, serving more than 300 seniors, said J.R. Isles, nutrition program manager for the Flathead County Agency on Aging.

All the food is cooked at the agency’s kitchen in Kalispell, and then volunteer drivers deliver it to senior centers in Whitefish, Lakeside, Kalispell, Bigfork and Columbia Falls. The bulk of the food goes to folks who visit the centers everyday, and the rest is portioned out for Meals on Wheels recipients, whisked away by volunteer drivers like Hervol.

In Columbia Falls, 17 people are served by Meals on Wheels, and the program has about 10 volunteer drivers.

“We can always use more drivers,” North Valley Senior Center director Roxy Larsen said.

Meals on Wheels is funded through the federal Older Americans Act, as well as donations and private fundraisers, Isles said. Recipients must be homebound and over 60 to qualify. Isles and agency staff screen recipients.

Most volunteers are older themselves, Isles said.

Hervol worked as an administrative assistant in Glacier National Park for 30 years. Semi-retired, she now works part-time for an eye doctor at Costco in addition to her volunteer work.

The program also helps keep an eye on folks, many who are in fragile health. Recently, a Whitefish volunteer found a Meals on Wheels client on the floor in their home — the person had lain there more than a day.

Volunteers are trained to knock on the door and then give a holler to make sure their clients are OK. If there’s no answer or no one home, the Agency will make sure a welfare check is done.

“We’ll start looking for them,” Isles said.

For Hervol, it’s all about giving back her community.

“I’ve changed vacations,” she said, so it wouldn’t interfere with her volunteering.

Anyone interesting in becoming a volunteer driver can call Roxy Larsen at the North Valley Senior Center at 892-4087.