Sudbury's Meals on Wheels still rolling through pandemic, director says

The head of Meals on Wheels in Sudbury says they've had to make changes, but meals are still being delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shannon Ketchabaw, executive director of the program in Sudbury, said they initially lost volunteers, but many more have stepped up to help.

Having capacity to make deliveries has been especially critical, as the organization has seen an increase in meal requests since the pandemic started.

"We have been able to actually increase routes that were once [a week], some of our routes were only three days a week, now they're five days a week," Ketchabaw said.

"We've also been able to divide some of the heavier routes that we had or make new routes up."

The organization's mandate is to offer services to those who are unable to shop for food or cook by themselves. It is largely volunteer-driven, where people deliver prepared meals to clients' homes.

But concerns over spreading the virus have made the program change some of its approach. Ketchabaw said volunteers are no longer able to go into client's homes to deliver the meals and check on them.

Arrangements have been made to check in with clients by phone instead.

"What we do is we leave the meals at the doorstep, the volunteer will knock on the door and move back six feet minimum," she said.

"Sometimes they may go back to their cars and just wait to see if the senior has picked up their meal and if they don't pick up the meal, they'll call us and we'll go into our unanswered door protocol."

For more information on the program, or to fill in a request for the Meals on Wheels service, visit their website.