GREENSBORO – In 2025 the Northeast Kingdom Council on Aging NEKCOA) Home Delivered Meals Program, more commonly called Meals on Wheels (MOW), delivered more than 10,000 meals in the Greensboro and Hardwick area, according to area coordinator Janney Johnston.
photo by Paul Fixx
This holiday season, each client will receive a large holiday bag filled with gifts from local businesses. Each bag contains one item selected specifically based on a client’s needs, with other varied items that can include toiletries, pillows, blankets, food and even homemade cookies.
Meals are prepared by the Greensboro Nursing Home, with 22 volunteers, sometimes in teams of two, picking up meals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to be delivered along six routes organized by geography. Most clients are in Greensboro and Hardwick, with routes in surrounding areas as the need arises, extending from Wolcott and into Walden
photo by Paul Fixx
From 40 to 45 clients receive meals each week. Some are short-term, but others receive them for years, continued for as long as a decade or more, said Johnston.
Each delivery includes one hot meal that can be eaten immediately, with up to six frozen meals, giving clients one nutritious meal each day.
Johnston and her husband Ken have volunteered for the program since April 2008, just a few months after they moved to the area.
When a long-time volunteer, who had been delivering meals in Greensboro, was leaving the program, the Greensboro Walking Ladies took on that route and Johnston stepped in, eventually coordinating local volunteers and the routes.
The Home Delivered Meals Program program is available to any person age 60 or over who is unable to obtain or prepare meals on a temporary or permanent basis due to a physical, mental or cognitive condition that requires assistance to leave home. Also eligible are the spouse, regardless of age, of eligible individuals; and individuals under 60 years of age with a disability, who reside with an eligible individual.
Additional volunteers are always needed.
To learn more, volunteer, or to qualify, call (800) 642-5119.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
