"A picture of me and my family delivering Meals on Wheels", by Jillian Adams, 2012


Meals on Wheels is a program administered by Senior Services of Sedgwick County, and it provides meals to the homebound.  About 40 years ago, the Wichita Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul learned that there wasn’t enough funding for meals to be delivered to those determined to have the greatest need for weekend meals.  This meant that many homebound elderly or physically handicapped clients would probably struggle to receive a nutritious meal every weekend.

At that point, the Society’s Conference Presidents agreed that the Council would provide  funding  to Senior Services to cover the cost of weekend meals. Additionally, the Council agreed to provide volunteeres to deliver the meals, 52 weekends per year.  The Wichita Council of SVdP consists of over ten Catholic parishes (Conferences) in the Wichita-Hutchinson metropolitan area.  Therefore, Blessed Sacrament's involvement is to deliver meals about four weekends per year.

Currently, weekend meals are delivered to about 50 clients each day we deliver.  Clients are grouped geographically to minimize wasted driving by volunteers.   A map is created for each route, showing the address of each client, along with pertinent instructions (I.e., "client unable to come to door, please leave meal on table inside door").

The meals are prepared by professional staff at Senior Services. The menu changes each week, to provide variety.  The meals typically include  milk, pudding or jello, a small salad, bread and butter.  The hot meal on April 7 for example, was pork roast, green beans and stuffing.


Getting ready to deliver meals!

Some of our recent volunteers include the Michael Leland family, the Shelley and Scott Walker family, the Daren Holovach family, the Rebecca Martin family, the Nora Rayl family,  Dee and Dave Ziegert, the Gina Adams family, the Elizabeth Tackett family, and the Jennifer Hickerson family.  Delivering Meals on Wheels is a great way for families to spend time together doing something positive for the community. This kind of service is one of the "Four Pillars of Stewardship".

Mary Short is the Blessed Sacrament Society of St. Vincent de Paul Meals on Wheels coordinator. She succeeded Mona Lewis, who succeeded long time coordinators Bill and Judy McKenzie.

Blessed Sacrament has a long tradition of supporting those in need and our support of Meals on Wheels is a great example of this. Thanks to the many, many families who have volunteered to deliver meals through the years!

Cots for the homeless, at Holy Savior gym

Thanks to the group of volunteers who helped make sack lunches today (2/19/2012) at Holy Savior gym, as a part of the Warming Souls project.  Nineteen people volunteered their time, so we were able to make 90 sack lunches in a little over one half hour.  Each sack lunch contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a package of crackers/cookies, a bag of chips, and an apple. 

Bonnie Toombs (Diocesan Respect Life and Social Justice Director) and Father Billinger expressed their deep appreciation for the team's effort.

The lunches will be distributed to the homeless men tomorrow morning (2/20/2012), as they leave the Shelter for the day.

The event was sponsored (and paid for) by the Blessed Sacrament Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Volunteers from the Blessed Sacrament Society of St. Vincent de Paul included Amy Rishell (and her two daughters, Chandra, and  Elenor), Paul Rothermel, JoAnn Robertson, Bob Donley, and Jeannie Dillard (and her two daughters, Claire and Katherine).  Other volunteers included Johnny and Michele Riter, Claire Daniels, Kristen, Chad, Logan and Ayden Jimenez, Kenny and Norma Schmidt, and Sally McGrath.  Addtionally, Yvonne Burgess made two trips to Sam's to buy the food/supplies.

Volunteers who helped make sack lunches, 2/19/2012

Helping the Homeless, Blessed Sacrament Society of St Vincent de Paul 

Blessed Sacrament's Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference is organizing two events to help feed the homeless in February, in support of Holy Savior Parish, which is hosting the Diocesan Warming Souls Homeless Shelter.  We will be making sack lunches (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with snacks) for about 80 homeless people, on Sunday, February 19 (11 a.m.), and again, Sunday, February 26 (11 a.m.).  We will meet at the Holy Savior gym, and create a "production line" to put together the lunches.  We asked for volunteers via the Parish bulletin in January, and had a great response, as always, from Parishioners.

Blessed Sacrament SVdP and other Parishioners made lunches for the homeless last year, when Warming Souls was held at the Cathedral gym.  However, with the renovation going on at the Cathedral, Warming Souls was moved to Holy Savior’s gym this year.

The group had a lot of fun last year, and it only took about an hour to complete our task.

2011 Blessed Sacrament Warming Souls Volunteers

This year, we will bring our own food (bread, peanut butter, jelly, snacks, etc.) to the gym to prepare the lunches.  The food will be paid for by the Blessed Sacrament Society of St. Vincent de Paul, via our generous benefactors.

As a part of the Warming Souls project, the homeless we will be helping are allowed to stay at the gym each night, but then they must leave each morning.  Therefore, the lunches we will be making will be handed out to each homeless person as they leave the shelter, so they will have food during the day.

Thanks to Blessed Sacrament for helping the homeless in Wichita.