Meals on Wheels Volunteers Needed As Busy Season Ends on the Suncoast

SARASOTA (WWSB) - Volunteers across the Suncoast are needed for local food delivery programs. As the busy season comes to a close and many are headed back to their homes up north, they’re leaving behind less people to help get meals to those who are home-bound.

Not every organization is as lucky as the Meals on Wheels in Sarasota which has more than 600 volunteers. Others are doing everything they can to serve all those in need in the community with the volunteers that they have available.

“It makes a huge difference in these people’s lives, and it’s our mission to take care of them,” Ellen Domke, the Vice-President of North Port Meals on Wheels, explained.

Domke tells us they’re losing 20 of their drivers within the next month – leaving them with only 42 volunteers for the Summer season.

“We have to find these drivers. We need full-time residents that will meet that need because our snowbirds are leaving,” Gloria Najerus, volunteer and Driver Coordinator for North Port Meal on Wheels, said.

The program delivers breakfast, lunch and dinner, six days a week. With drivers going to homes between 9:00 and 11:30 a.m., to not only to feed those in need, but to be their daily visitor.

“You might be the only face they see that day, and that makes the happy but it also makes you happy. Our lives are so full, but maybe one thing that you do that can help another person will be the greatest gift you get,” Najerus expressed.

If you’d like to volunteer or donate to any of the Meals on Wheels on the Suncoast, please contact the following:

MEALS ON WHEELS PLUS OF MANATEE COUNTY

811 23rd Ave E

Bradenton, Florida

Phone: (941) 747-4655

Email: info@mealsonwheelsplus.org

MEALS ON WHEELS SARASOTA

421 N. Lime Ave. Sarasota, FL 34237

Phone: (941) 366-6693

Email: info@mowsrq.org

VENICE AREA MOBILE MEALS

920 Tamiami Trail South

Venice, FL 34285

Phone: (941) 488-1889

Email : veniceareamobilemeals@yahoo.com

NORTH PORT MEALS ON WHEELS

13624 Tamiami Trail

North Port FL, 34287

Phone: (941) 426-6331

Email: northportmealsonwheels@gmail.com

MEALS ON WHEELS ENGLEWOOD

400 Loma Linda, Englewood, FL 34223

Phone: (941) 474-4445

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