All too many senior citizens are alone, infirm or hungry. Meals on Wheels is a national nonprofit organization that maintains no senior go hungry or be forgotten.

Dallas County Meals on Wheels, operating under the national organization, is provided by the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA). 

The Beatrice N. Haggerty Kitchen, located at 1440 W. Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, is the largest single-site kitchen in the country preparing meals for the program. From this kitchen, one million meals are freshly cooked and delivered to homebound seniors or served at senior centers in DallasCounty each year.  The meals are prepared according to the daily recommended nutrient requirement for elderly adults.

Natalie Martin, director of communications for VNA, said that in addition to providing physical nutrition, Meals on Wheels volunteers provide social and emotional nutrition to those who are often forgotten by society.

Doing just that are Mary Chris Gibbons and Becky Riggins.  Both women are members of Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Dallas and take advantage of the many volunteer opportunities offered through the church.  Like other members of Central and other Dallas churches, they have chosen to deliver meals to Dallas shut-ins through the VNA Meals on Wheels program.

Gibbons is a native Dallasite and a retired English teacher.

For six years Gibbons has served as president and vice president for the Disciple Women organization of the church.

Art is her hobby and she loves designing and making jewelry.  “Metals and baubles of all sorts are my favorite materials,” she said.

What drew Gibbons to volunteering for Meals on Wheels?

“I always wanted to be the “coffee refill lady” for Wyatt’s Cafeteria when I retired so I could go around to senior citizens and tell them how good it was to see them and join with them in “happy talk.”  But there is no more Wyatt’s, so volunteering for Meals on Wheels is almost like that.  I really like doing something that is important and meaningful for my community—especially the elderly people who need the social contact as well as the food,” Gibbons said.

“My mother and my aunt were housebound the last two years of their lives. They received Meals on Wheels during that period. My sister and I were both working and the meal assistance made a tremendous difference in our care giving abilities.  The volunteer who brought them their meals always took time to visit with them,” Gibbons said.  “Mama and Aunt Babe would share stories about him every day,” she added.

Riggins is also an active member of Central Christian Church and the Disciple Women organization.  She sings in the choir and has performed with the Westside Players, the church’s drama workshop.

Before retiring, she was a human resource manager for Southwestern Bell Corporation

She and her husband, Bill, have one child and three grandchildren.  Spending time with her grandchildren is among Riggins favorite things. She loves traveling and tending to flowers in the yard of her Lake Highland’s home.

“I believe that Meals on Wheels is a great community project.  It enables elderly and infirm people to have a balanced meal which they wouldn't get otherwise,” Riggins said. “It also gives them human contact which so many of the confined are denied.”

The ladies let me ride along as they delivered meals on their Friday route so I could see first-hand the charity provided by the Meals on Wheels program.  I met up with them at Northway Christian Church on Northwest Highway, one of several Meals on Wheels area pick-up points.    

When the food truck arrived, we loaded Riggin’s SUV with two insulated food chests, one filled with hot meals and the other with cold. Equipped with the route map, addresses and phone numbers of the recipients, along with instructions of who receives which meals, delivery began.

The men and women on the route were happy to receive their food and to see Gbbons and Riggins— a team who has brought them meals for over five years. 

Some of them chatted briefly about what was going on in their life.  Seeing each other on a regular basis, a bond often develops between the meal recipients and the volunteers. 

Riggins recalled the time an elderly woman mentioned that her birthday was coming in a few days.  On that special day, Riggins returned to her door with a birthday bouquet.

Volunteers for Meals on Wheels often have fond memories and stories to share about the people they have met on their delivery route.  

Once the delivery was completed, we returned to Northway Christian Church to turn in the empty coolers.

Afterwards, we paid a visit to the Meals on Wheels headquarters on Mockingbird Lane, home to the commercial kitchen where the meals are prepared.  

The friendly staff was eager to visit with us and they shared the July menu. Mouthwatering dishes like country-fried steak with gravy, jerk chicken and Swedish meatballs were a few of the entrees planned for the month.

The Beatrice N. Haggerty kitchen is a state of the art facility made possible by the help of Dallas philanthropist, T. Boone Pickens. 

Nothing to hide in this kitchen— it is so impressive that it is on display through a floor to ceiling glass wall.  Tours of the facility and the kitchen can be arranged by contacting the office at 214-689-2676.

If you are interested in enriching your life and the lives of others by volunteering at Meals on Wheels visit their website at www.vnatexas.org and see how you can make a difference.