How a senior meals program has made holidays special for four decades

Bracken and her sons, Aiden and Cameron, lended a hand with the Senior Citizen Vacation Meal Program at the moment. The grassroots effort has been grown by word-of-mouth during the last 4 many years.

Dozens of volunteers be part of fingers on holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to prepare dinner and package deal meals for seniors, veterans, disabled people, or anybody with out households. The Bracken household particularly obtained concerned for a sentimental purpose.

“Aiden’s father was a veteran and he handed away in 2017,” mentioned Bracken. “So, it is a manner for us to provide again in remembrance of him.”

One recipient, Grace Metzger, was thrilled to listen to the Bracken household knocking on her door with a meal in hand.

“That is so sort of them to do this on their vacation like this,” she mentioned. “I dwell all on my own, however this helps me quite a bit.”

Serving to people like Metzger has at all times been the objective for this system’s coordinator, Steve DiOrio.

“I by no means dreamt once I was 24, that at 65, I might nonetheless be doing it, however right here we’re,” he mentioned.

DiOrio began out as a volunteer for a separate program within the late Nineteen Seventies. However round 1981, he realized it might be dissolved.

“I referred to as in a bunch of mates. All of us introduced meals,” he mentioned. “Since then, we have been fluctuating between 5 and 6,000 meals throughout South Jersey.”

DiOrio is assured that the group will keep on this custom for generations to come back. Anybody serious about studying extra can attain him by e-mail at seniorholidaymeals@gmail.com.

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