Driver shortage threatens Meals-on-Wheels

Program delivers affordable lunches to 20,000 clients

- FRANCINE KOPUN

Colleen Peacock has been delivering meals to people in their homes since the 1980s. There is a critical shortage of drivers for Meals-onWheels programs.

Colleen Peacock can’t seem to give up delivering Meals-on-Wheels.

She began as a volunteer in 1983 when she was 16, going on to become executive-director of Mealson-Wheels East Toronto and manager of food and security check programs at Woodgreen, Toronto’s leading social services agency.

Now retired, she’s back to driving through town at midday, dropping off lunch for people house-bound by age or illness.

“You just get addicted to helping people,” Peacock said.

Her dedication to the role makes her a bit of a rare bird in this inflationary economy, as people who once volunteered their time and their vehicles are themselves struggling to make ends meet, according to Adriano Murarotto, director of seniors programs at Woodgreen Community Services. The service could use 80 drivers. It is making do with 30.

“There’s fewer and fewer people that can afford to run their vehicles and give up their time versus being paid for it,” said Murarotto.

Typically working in a team of two, a driver and a runner, Mealson-Wheels volunteers deliver a warm lunch to clients — mostly seniors, but also people who are ill or disabled — in exchange for a fee that ranges from about $6.70 to $14 for culture-specific meals.