MOW

“Joe”, she says as I just dozed off again, after all it’s seven o’clock and raining, “you better get going, Al will be here in a minute or two”. “Okay, okay”, I murmur”, I’m up.

Another day begins, and it’s Tuesday. I have a job to do. Yes, I’m retired but I signed on to do a job so I’ll do it rain or shine. Kind of like the legendary pony express. Well not quite but as important and to some more so.

Today I have to do my MOW.

I down my 4 medications and put an ice cube in my coffee so I can drink it faster before Al gets here.

“Okay, he’s here, I’ll see you in a few hours” I call out as I close the door. “Be careful”, I hear just before the door clicks shut.

Al’s turn to drive this week so off we go about eight miles to the Community Service kitchen near downtown. No, we are not cooks but Transport Drivers for MOW.

Okay, MOW is the acronym for Meals on Wheels. We help feed the hungry.

Our job today is the North Route. As we enter the building we are careful not to step on any of the several people sleeping on the ground just outside the door.

Most are covered up in raggedy clothes and blankets. A slight shiver runs through me as I think that they were lying here all night long.

I was awakened an hour ago from a sleep in a soft king sized bed. But these folks were still sleeping or at least trying to. Their night was cold, damp, noisy as trucks rumbled by. A siren or two also kept their dreams in check.

It’ll be another three hours before they can get into the CAFE as it’s called but we knock and the door is unlocked. Awaiting us are the the several volunteers packing our coolers and insulated “hot packs”that we will transport to three locations.

Six containers, 3 hot and 3 cold go to the first stop just off US 41 about 8 miles north of town. As we arrive with the food we see a compact car with an older man sleeping at the wheel. He turns out to be 87 years old and will deliver about a third of the meals we brought door to door to the hungry folks in need. Imagine, he’s 87 and still volunteers to help feed the hungry.

Our next stop is 15 miles west out near the police department in Cape Coral. Six more containers to be dropped off and six empty ones to be returned to the kitchen. That amounts to sixty meals or so that will feed sixty hungry souls today. But we aren’t done yet. We still have 4 more packets to drop off behind a restaurant on our route where we meet a couple waiting to do their door to door trips. They tell us that this is their 20 th year delivering food to the hungry. I don’t doubt it at all as their kindly faces tell me they really care.

Now as we head back to the kitchen with the 16 empty packs we get this little tinge of hunger and agree that we have time to stop at Bennett’s for a nutritious apple fritter or a cinnamon twist.

We chat about the big dinner we had on Thanksgiving and all the left overs. We certainly are not going hungry are we.

A little satisfaction crosses my mind that the few we helped today are not going hungry, at least today.

I like the feeling I get when I’m done for the day with my part in distributing food to the hungry. Everybody gets hungry; yes even you and me. So I decided to do another route on Friday. Six containers, one stop, 30 miles. Easy deazy. I even get to stop at McDonalds on the way home if my hunger kicks in. I love the Sausage McMuffin with egg, don’t you?

In volunteering to help the hungry I hunger to help even a little more. Maybe that explains why the 87 year old man keeps on helping. He is hungry to help.