The Sedona Meals on Wheels program administered by the Sedona Community Center is seeking additional volunteer drivers to get meals to people throughout the community.

The program has seen about a 30% drop in the number of volunteers, from 100 to 70, recently and has had to adjust its deliveries as a result.

“We have a nice base of sub-drivers but we just don’t have enough,” the center’s marketing manager, Kristen Paduchowski, said on Monday, Jan. 8. “Right now there’s four routes that do not have permanent drivers that we are looking [to fill]. For instance, on Wednesday this week, we don’t have a driver for our Route One, which is Uptown. So we will be sending out frozen [meals] for the Meals on Wheels clients tomorrow so that they’ll have them for Wednesday.”

Sedona Meals on Wheels is delivering on average between 80 to 90 meals daily, and runs Monday through Friday. Doing so requires seven drivers for the fixed delivery routes and Village of Oak Creek courier route.

“Meals on Wheels is a service that we provide for the elders of Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek,” Paduchowski said. “There can be a cost to it, but there doesn’t have to be a cost to it. What we do is we ask for an independent contribution. That means that we can send you a statement telling you how much you owe, and you can either pay for all of it, some of it or none of it, we’re not a billing service … We do get funding from the city of Sedona for any of the Sedona residents and then we get some funding from the state of Arizona and the Northern Arizona Council of Governments. But a lot of our money comes from private donations with the tax credit program, and just people in general giving us donations.”

Signups for the meal delivery service come in on a regular basis, but drivers are few and far between.

“It’s a volunteer position,” Paduchowski said. Drivers provide their own vehicles and are not reimbursed for fuel. “I don’t know if gas prices have something to do with that. Sedona is such a rich volunteer community that there are so many places that need volunteers and are people volunteering themselves thin in volunteering in too many places, and feeling like they have to choose where they’re volunteering? … It’s just a community that is falling short on volunteers, because there are so many places to volunteer.”

The time commitment for volunteer drivers is typically from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. one day a week between Monday and Friday, and Meals on Wheels asks for at least a one-year commitment from participants.

“Four of the routes meet here to pick up their routes and their food,” Paduchowski said. “[Drivers] count all the food in the coolers and in the hot bags, and then put them in their cars and go. That’s usually the time commitment. We don’t ask for anything later … There’s not a whole lot of responsibility, just wanting to help and be kind.”

It’s necessary that volunteers use a vehicle big enough to hold a 48-quart cooler, a hot bag of food and occasionally milk crates with frozen food. While no special certifications are required to be a driver, a background check and fingerprint clearance is required. Meals on Wheels covers the cost and the process typically takes about six weeks.

“While you’re waiting for your background check to come back, you can go out with a driver who is fingerprinted, because you wouldn’t necessarily be going into [a client’s] house,” Paduchowski said. “We set you up on a route with a fingerprint-cleared driver to learn the different routes. We provide a map-book of locations where clients live … We try to send [new drivers] out on a couple of different roads until their clearance comes back. Then they can go out again with somebody to do a real route, or they can go ahead on their own.”

This year is the 40th anniversary for Sedona Meals on Wheels. A small fundraiser is planned for late March, with the theme “March for Meals,” and an anniversary celebration for late September. Details will be announced at a later date for both events.

“In 1984, Margaret Flynn and a friend started the Meals on Wheels program [in Sedona] out of their homes, providing a much-needed service to the local community,” SCC’s website states. “This project soon grew to such proportions that they could no longer prepare the meals in their homes even with the donations provided by local stores such as Bashas and Webers. Kachina Point was contacted and agreed to provide meals which they transported to the old ‘Yellow Front/Checker Auto’ strip mall, where they chained a large cooler to the light pole in front of the Flicker Shack and dropped the meals there. The volunteer drivers then picked up the meals and distributed them. In 1985 the Meals on Wheels program was adopted and still resides with us at the center.”

“It’s a feel-good thing,” Paduchowski said. “The people are appreciative of the food that they get from us. I know that our drivers love what they do, or they wouldn’t be doing it. You’re helping out your community, you’re helping out your elders. [One] couple that just retired last year, they were older than some of the people they were delivering to. So, maybe if you’re in Sedona, and you’re going to be here long enough, it may be you on that receiving end someday and you like to treat people the way that you would want to be treated. Our drivers do that. They genuinely care about the people they deliver to.”

For more information or to apply to be a volunteer Sedona Meals on Wheels driver, visit sccsedona.org or call (928) 282-2834.