Meals on Wheels more than a feel-good story it’s a solution to food insecurity

Times Photo Submitted by Carrie Wilson and Clearview Lodge. MEALS ON WHEELS: Clearview Lodge staff Tara Rasaimi is prepping and serving the take-out cups and trays and volunteers are taking food out to residents.

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Taber’s Meals on Wheels is closing out 2025 with a marvel of community achievement: Since 2020, the program has delivered 30,000 meals to Taber residents.

 Teams of volunteers deliver meals over lunch hour Monday through Friday each week and have done so for years. Over 15 groups cover the annual calendar — church groups, members of service agencies, and corporate volunteers who deliver fresh lunches to recipients’ front doors.

 Meals on Wheels (MOW) operates under the guidance of the Taber and District Housing Foundation, and CAO Tim Janzen is intent on giving credit where credit is due: to the volunteers. Janzen said that MOW is more than just a local feel-good story – it’s a solution to a problem, and the results are evidenced by the numbers.

 “For some it could mean a much better way of dealing with food insecurity,” he said, addressing an issue that the program helps alleviate.

 Janzen said the program is for seniors or individuals that are referred by a physician or homecare nurse who can confirm that the person requires assistance due to food insecurity.

 “For example, an individual may have had a recent surgery, and having meals delivered to their home may make it possible for them to return home sooner,” Janzen explained.

 Aleah Weiss, outreach coordinator at Safe Haven Women’s Shelter Society, leads a team of volunteers during the month of January.

 “Taber Safe Haven helps MOW every January and I help oversee finding volunteers for Safe Haven,” Weiss said in an email, confirming that she usually works alongside about eight volunteers and has been doing so for three years now.

 Meals on Wheels is a fulfilling and worthwhile endeavour for the volunteers. “We really enjoy helping with MOW,” Weiss said. “It’s nice to interact with the community. We always have great conversations with the clients and look forward to delivering every day.”

 Gloria Cyr, director of first impressions at Avail CPA, has been involved with Meals on Wheels along the Avail team for the last nine years. As the organizer at Avail, she recruits team members who are willing and able help out with MOW.

 “This year we had 16 volunteers to help with our two weeks,” she said. “Many of (our team members) have been helping longer than our nine years here at Avail.”

 “It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that perhaps if we are the only folks they see that day, then we can make it a pleasant and friendly experience,” Cyr said. “We don’t have a lot of time to chat with them during our visit but I do my best to always interact in a way that leaves them smiling when we say goodbye. I love my time with them, however quick it is.”

 Janice Anderson, an accounting technician with Avail, has similarly been a MOW volunteer for nine years with Avail, but her additional involvement through her church group goes back at least 15 years.

 Her enthusiasm for serving others was obvious in her response to the question: What makes your involvement worthwhile?

 “I LOVE to be able to help someone with something that may be difficult or impossible for them to do!” she replied in an email. “Even simple acts of service always make me feel good and create such a positive difference in the lives of others.”

 “My reward is in seeing and hearing the expressions of gratitude from those I am serving,” Anderson said. “I so enjoy my visits with the recipients and always wish I could stay and visit longer.”

 CAO Janzen explained that the food is prepared every weekday, excluding stat holidays, in the Clearview Lodge kitchen. The entire food services team prepares the lunch hour meal for Lodge residents, and portion of that meal is packaged as the meal on wheels.

 Volunteers deliver the meals within Taber between noon and 1 p.m. and a Lodge staff member delivers any meals designated for the three manors of Harmony Home, Homestead, or Pioneer Place that surround Clearview.

 Janzen said that Meals on Wheels is a collaborative effort of TDHF staff. Jessika Letkeman, administrative assistant at TDHF works at coordinating the volunteer schedule and onboarding any new applicants to the program.

 People interested in the program can contact Jessika at (403) 223-2767 ext. 2.