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Volunteers Needed To Prep, Deliver Meals For Homebound Seniors On Thanksgiving

By Christy Strawser

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) No one wants to be sick and alone on the holidays, so here's a way you can earn some bonus Christmas points by making sure you've done your part to help someone avoid that fate.

The Detroit Area Agency on Aging is looking for volunteers to help pack and deliver 5,950 Thanksgiving meals to homebound seniors in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Harper Woods and all five Grosse Pointes.

The need is higher than usual, and fewer volunteers have stepped up, especially to serve as drivers.

"We've gotten less volunteers than we usually get," said Pam Perry, spokeswoman for the Area Agency on Aging. The group still needs 220 drivers.

Drivers usually work in teams, with one calling the senior to alert that they're on the way, and the other "jumping," or making the delivery in the house.

It usually takes an hour or two to complete an entire route to 15 or so houses grouped closely together. Drivers work between 9 a.m. 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning to deliver piping hot meal packages. The meals themselves were donated by Ford Motor Co.

"(Recipients) are homebound, they can't cook, they're elderly and they just can't move around, it's not necessarily that they have income problems, and for many, their family isn't here for Thanksgiving," Perry said.

For Perry and her family, it's the perfect way to kick off a day of thanks.

"A lot of of people are like 'whoa, that's so early!' My family does it every year, and it gives you a better appreciation of what Thanksgiving is all about when you do it," she said.

Packaging volunteers will work 6 to 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving at Valley Services, 1980 Bagley, Detroit, Michigan 48216, at the corner of Rosa Parks Blvd., (old 12th Street) south of Michigan Ave., near the former Tiger Stadium and Corktown., for distribution to 10 sites where drivers pick up meals to distribute to recipients.

DAAA Holiday Meals on Wheels Thanksgiving Day delivery distribution sites include:

  •  Detroit Association of Women's Clubs, 5461 Brush Street, Detroit, MI 48201
  • Franklin Wright Settlements, 3360 Charlevoix, Detroit, MI 48207
  • Alpha Phi Alpha/Optimist, 293 Eliot, Detroit, MI 48201
  • New Light Baptist Church, 5240 W. Chicago, Detroit, MI 48204
  • The Matrix Center, 13560 E. McNichols Road, Detroit, MI 48205
  • El Bethel Church, 25295 Grand River, Detroit, MI 48240
  • St Moses the Black Parish, 1125 Oakman Blvd., Detroit, MI, 48238
  • Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC, 19190 Schaefer Hwy, Detroit, MI 48235
  • New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church, 19951 Livernois Avenue, Detroit, MI 48221
  • Christ Church Detroit, 960 E. Jefferson, Detroit, MI 48207

CONTACT:  To volunteer call 313-446-4444, ext. 5605. Background checks are required.

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