Community Champions deliver Meals on Wheels

GREER, SC – Local celebrities joined volunteers on Wednesday and Thursday at Greer Community Ministries (GCM) to help deliver Meals on Wheels routes and highlight the need to fight hunger in the Greater Greer area.

Photo: Greer City Councilman Lee Dumas, left, and Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Owens joined Greer Community Ministries on Wednesday for Community Champions Day. They delivered a Meals on Wheels route in Greer.

Greer Mayor Rick Danner, Police Chief Dan Reynolds, Fire Chief Chris Harvey, City Councilman Lee Dumas, and Greater Greer Chamber President and CEO Mark Owens rode with regular volunteers on Wednesday to deliver a local route. Blue Ridge High Principal Reena Watson helped package meals in the kitchen on Thursday.

“What struck me was how appreciative people were that folks were out volunteering to do that,” Owens said. “I think we got just as much, if not more, out of doing it than our folks that were receiving the meals. We were smiling the whole time, getting to talk to folks. Just to see that appreciation meant a lot.”

Reynolds said it was a great chance to interact in the community without wearing his normal police uniform. “You don’t see these people because a lot of them are shut-ins and aren’t able to get out of the house,” he said. “People have a need right here in this community.”

“I actually saw a lot of people that I’ve known through the years and I didn’t realize they were here and there was this kind of need,” Dumas said. “It was really rewarding and neat to talk to them.”

Watson, whose mother-in-law Betty Watson is a member of GCM’s Senior Dining program, said she was grateful for the invitation to serve. “It’s just a matter of giving back and trying to serve, which I think is one of the purposes of life,” Watson said.

GCM prepares and delivers about 350 meals each weekday to Meals on Wheels clients at no cost to them. Volunteer drivers are a vital part of the program and are responsible for covering 21 routes in the Greater Greer area.

March for Meals is a nationwide celebration that has been organized by Meals on Wheels America for the last 13 years. The event seeks to raise awareness for not only the vital network of Meals on Wheels programs, it also highlights the needs of the seniors they collectively serve.

Greer Mayor Rick Danner, center, helped Ruth and Gary Griffin deliver their regular volunteer Meals on Wheels route on Wednesday as part of the national March for Meals Community Champions day at Greer Community Ministries.

Blue Ridge High Principal Reena Watson joined the kitchen staff at Greer Community Ministries on Thursday and helped package meals for the Meals on Wheels routes.