Local nonprofit delivers millionth meal

Volunteers from Charlottesville’s Meals on Wheels streamed in and out of the Kluge Children’s Rehabilitation Center cafeteria Tuesday morning, picking up hot food on their way to delivering the nonprofit agency’s one millionth meal.

The organization held a small celebration for the occasion as well-wishers, officials and volunteers shared cookies and sparkling water while packing up the meals dished out by kitchen staff. Ann Shaffer, who has volunteered since the nonprofit’s 1977 creation, delivered the meal.

“It’s really pretty amazing that we’ve reached this level and it says a lot about the need for Meals on Wheels, as well as the dedication of the volunteers,” said the group’s executive director, Dawn Grzegorczyk. “We have a lot of dedicated people and some very generous donors. [The University of Virginia] has been great about offering us office space and a place to pack the meals and the Kluge center’s kitchen staff is great about cooking for us. We’ve made a big difference in people’s lives.”

Along with more than 200 volunteers, two full-time employees and two part-time employees put out about 240 meals a day for residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle County who cannot cook meals for themselves.

Prepared in the Kluge center’s kitchen by employees of contractor Morrison Health Care, the meals are cooked to be medically acceptable for persons with restricted diets. Then volunteers drive the meals to doorsteps.

“We have a lot of people who are really committed, spending at least an hour or two at least once a week to take meals, to help pack and to serve as on-call substitutes if someone can’t make it,” said Mary Susan Payne, a member of the nonprofit’s board of directors and a volunteer. “We also have a lot of support from donors and every penny that’s given goes to help people who live here, in our community.” The group is funded exclusively by donations and its own investments.

Even while celebrating, nonprofit officials wondered about the organization’s upcoming need to relocate. UVa plans to close the rehabilitation center and move operations into the Battle Building being built near the UVa Medical Center. The approximately 200,000-square-foot building between the Lee Street parking garage and West Main Street and next to the Blake building is scheduled for completion in 2014.

Children needing inpatient care will stay in the UVa Medical Center’s main hospital. Rehabilitation services will be divided between the Battle Building and HealthSouth, at Fontaine Research Park, hospital officials said.

When that happens, the Kluge facility will close and Meals on Wheels will need to find a new distribution site, Grzegorczyk said.

“We don’t know where we’re going yet. We’re looking into multiple options and one of them is utilizing space in a church or renting our own space,” she said. “If we rent our own, we need to find a place with room to pack the meals and some office space. Renting would add to our costs, but it would also assure stability.”

Grzegorczyk said Morrison Health Care management is willing to continue producing the meals for the nonprofit, most likely at the UVa Hospital cafeteria. Morrison has the contract for UVa’s food services. The meals would then be shipped to the site from which the nonprofit decides to distribute the meals.

“That would be great because we’d be able to continue to provide medically appropriate diets for our clients and we want to keep that going,” Grzegorczyk said. “What we need to find is a space big enough for 34 volunteers to come every single day, gather, talk together, pack up meals and then head out. Right now, we come in around 10 a.m., pick up the meals and we’re out by 11 a.m. It’s an efficient operation.”

Payne said most volunteers would be willing to serve no matter where the nonprofit winds up.

“It’s a great feeling, being a volunteer. You get an automatic, immediate benefit from delivering meals because you see the benefit first-hand,” said Payne, who delivers meals with her husband, Jim Brookeman. “We get to know the people we deliver to, we get to hear their stories and talk with them.”

“It’s great because the people know we’re not doing this because it’s our job or that we’re getting paid by a government agency,” said Brookeman, who grew up in Great Britain. “They know we’re doing it because we care, and they really appreciate that.”