Community Cooperative in Fort Myers says it has not missed a delivery since the pandemic and needs volunteers between 9 and noon
Meals on Wheels Is Back to Five Days a Week in Lee County, and the Cooperative Is Asking for Drivers
Community Cooperative in Fort Myers says it has not missed a delivery since the pandemic and needs volunteers between 9 and noon
By Lotte Heidenreich, poet and Meals on Wheels volunteer, Florida
Tuesday, Sweet Tea, Late Afternoon
Dear diary, I read a local report today on Fox 4, about Community Cooperative in Fort Myers, which serves Lee County. It says Meals on Wheels service has returned to five days per week, and that the program reports it has not missed a meal delivery since the pandemic. The page does not give a date, so I give it undated.
I deliver in a different county, and I mention the Lee County story because it is the best local news I have read in a month.
What the Report Says
The report gives over 30 meal delivery and transport routes in North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres and Bonita Springs, and program growth of more than 20 percent since the pandemic. It says the Cooperative has more than 3,000 volunteers overall. It does not say how many meals or clients are served.
I take those figures as stated and add nothing to them.
The CEO
Tracey Galloway, the CEO of Community Cooperative, is quoted: “we need volunteers, specifically drivers, to keep our program running.” The report says drivers are needed throughout Lee County, Monday through Friday, 9am to noon, on flexible schedules.
Volunteers must pass a background check, hold a current driver’s license and provide vehicle insurance information. Interested people can call 239-337-1055, according to the report.
A Practical Note
If you live in Lee County and want to help, call the number in the report or check the Cooperative’s own site first. Details may have changed since the report. I have not called the number myself and I cannot promise what you will hear.
The thing about volunteering is that it is a promise to turn up. The meals are warm only if the driver is on time.
Why Five Days Matters
A week of meals is not the same as three days. A senior who lives alone and gets food on five days has a person at the door five times. That is food and also company. I am going on what the report implies, which is that a restored five-day service matters, and not on any data about outcomes.
I will say only that a knock at the door is a form of care.
The Poem
Tonight’s line, on the back of a gas receipt: Five days is a week; three days is a rumour. I will fix the rhythm later. It is rough, but it has a spine.
I wrote it at a red light, which is the only place a poet in Florida can be sure of a pause.
A Word to Poets
If you write, go and deliver something. A cooler bag will teach you more about the inside of a sentence than any workshop. People tell you things at doors, and none of them is rehearsed.
I do not mean that to sound grand. I mean it to sound like a tip.
Evening
The sweet tea is gone. The ice has melted. The ants have found the lemon.
Goodnight, diary. Call the number.
Questions From the Porch
Neighbour one: can anyone volunteer? According to the report, volunteers must pass a background check, hold a current driver’s license and provide vehicle insurance information. Neighbour two: how long is a shift? The report gives 9am to noon, Monday through Friday, on flexible schedules. Neighbour three: is there pay? The report does not say, and I assume not.
I said I would look into it for them, which in my family is how favours are paid.
A Note on Dates
The report carries no date, so I cannot tell you when the five-day service returned or whether anything has changed since. That is the trouble with a page that says posted and updated without saying when. A careful reader should call the Cooperative before relying on any of this.
I mention it because honesty is the only rhyme that always works.
Sweet Tea Corner
If you need something to read while the iced tea sweats, try the Cebu condo saga as told by the comic press: a Manila News report on a broker with three brochures, a London Prat dispatch on British pensioners needing a vicar (direct link https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and a Bohiney piece on two-hour showings. The wider network lives at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsThump, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/