Oregon Public Broadcasting

Local agencies that deliver meals and groceries to the homebound are losing volunteer drivers faster than they can replace them.  High gas prices get the blame.  It's a hard problem to solve, as correspondent Tom Banse reports.

Kieran Jendro drives his personal car -- a Honda -- during his volunteer shift for the Seattle charity Chicken Soup Brigade.  Jendro carries a week's worth of dinner fixin's for four shut-in seniors and sick people.

Kieran Jendro: "...Pasta, some cereal, looks like some ground beef. The short answer is whatever was donated."

The software developer navigates traffic-choked streets to a Seattle Housing Authority high rise.

Chicken Soup Brigade volunteer Kieran Jendro delivers frozen dinners to Willie Wasson, a blind Seattle man.

Willie Wasson answers the door.

He's almost completely blind; 61-years-old.  Wasson lives alone in the one-bedroom apartment. 

Willie Wasson: "I do know he's God sent.  This organization is a godsend to me, you know."

Wasson says he's 'brooded' over the high price of gas and how it might affect his services. Jendro reassures there's no way he'll stop coming by.

Kieran Jendro: "There is a cost that I would reconsider driving to Vancouver for the weekend, but not for driving around to deliver food. I can actually feel good about driving doing this."

But these days, any given week about 25% of the volunteer drivers are no shows at the food kitchen.  So says distribution manager Mike Cox.

Mike Cox: "It's hard to express that you don't have money to pay for gas this week. So you just call in sick or say, 'I have a car problem' or something like that. You hear excuses.  That's all well and good.  We totally understand that.  But it does leave us where we need people to fill in for routes."

Cox is by no means alone is his struggle to find volunteer drivers.  The national Meals on Wheels association recently surveyed its member programs.  The majority reported they're losing volunteers due to high gas prices.

Mike Cox says it's hardest to find people willing to drive their own cars over longer outlying routes.

Mike Cox: "We're not seeing nearly as many younger people coming in to volunteer as a driver.  I think that probably has to do with the fact that college students don't have a lot of discretionary income.  When you're talking about an extra maybe $15 a week in gas money, it really makes an impact on a college student's life."

Volunteer driver David Wash is well past college, but he knows the feeling.  The 45-year-old is cutting back on other things like dining out to keep gas in his pick-up truck.

David Wash: "We've just bit the bullet and said we're going to basically rob Peter to pay Paul.  If you have to put gas in the truck, we're going to put gas in the truck because delivering is important to me as a person and then is extremely important to all of our clients."

Meals on Wheels programs around the Northwest are trying different things to recruit and retain volunteers.

In Central Oregon, the Council on Aging is paying a mileage reimbursement to volunteer drivers that ask for it.

In Portland, the Loaves and Fishes charity recruits companies to 'adopt-a- route' and share delivery duties among a group of employees.  That way no one person bears too much of a burden.

Meal recipient Willie Wasson is also thinking about his deliveryman's gas bill.

Willie Wasson: "I think there should be a break, a break for people like him or organizations like he's representing to have some kind of relief.  Society knows that they're not pilfering off the gas. They need gas help."

For now, the big programs around the Northwest are pledging to maintain full service to the 'homebound hungry.'

Online:

Meals on Wheels Association of America