EDITOR'S NOTE: Marty Yachisko is the supervisor for Meals on Wheels, based out of American Legion Post 141 in downtown Indiana. The local group started in 1972 when a group of local women decided it would be a good idea. The first time they cooked was for six people. Now, volunteers deliver meals to 60 people five days week. Approximately 180 volunteers give their time to prepare and deliver these meals. Gazette Staff Writer Rebecca Singer recently sat down with Yachisko to talk about her job and experiences with Meals on Wheels and why she keeps doing it.
Question: How long have you been with Meals on Wheels?
Answer: I started volunteering when my youngest son started first grade. He's turning 40 this year, so that would be 34 years ago. I volunteered for several years and then they called and asked me if I would like to be supervisor. I started as supervisor in 1981, so I've been supervisor 28 years.
Question: Does it feel like 28 years?
Answer: No. It's a fun job. All the people who work here and the drivers are volunteers. We have a lot of nice people in Indiana. My kids say I know everybody. We have about 125 volunteers and, of course, there are some that don't volunteer anymore and I know them, too. When we go out to eat there's always somebody I know.
Question: What kind of hours do you work?
Answer: I try to be here by 7:30 in the morning and get everything out, then I'm done by 12:30, quarter to 1.
Question: Do you do any preplanning for the next day?
Answer: Well, I do shopping on Mondays. I try to be organized and get everything all in one trip.
Question: How many people are you cooking for?
Answer: Sixty right now.
Question: How many cooks does it take to help get everything ready?
Answer: There are four women in the kitchen. There's one day they rotate and take turns, but generally one woman is cooking, one is doing the salad, one is doing the dessert, and one does bread, then they all help pack it into the bags. Then we do the hot (food), and they all help. It's sort of an assembly line. One puts one thing in and down the line. About four are here to work every day and then 6 to 8 come in to deliver. We do a small route in Homer City and they come up to help cook and then go deliver. Six volunteers from Indiana come into the kitchen every day.
Question: So most of the deliveries are in Indiana?
Answer: Indiana and White Township. They (the volunteers) only work - we do need volunteers - once every other week and it's only an hour, hour and a half. The women in the kitchen, they come about 8 or 8:30 and they are done by a quarter after 11.
Question: So you do need a lot of people with that kind of rotation?
Answer: Yeah, and I think the younger generation is less prone to volunteer than the older generation. I see us going out of business, simply because we don't have volunteers. The older people are getting too old. … I have one lady who is going to be 93 who comes in every other week and cooks. She's been here since we started … Charlot Smith. She'll say, “I'm getting too old for this,” and we say, “No, Charlot.” She's pretty sharp for her age. But we do need some volunteers, substitutes even. People who are willing to come in as called. I try not to do that more than once a week, or once every other week, because they shouldn't have to go more often than the regular people. I also need to put a plug in for The American Legion, because if it wasn't for them, we probably couldn't operate. They leave us use their kitchen and they pay all our utilities except our phone and charge us nothing for it. If we didn't have them, we wouldn't be here. We are here five days a week.
Question: So nothing on the weekends?
Answer: Saturdays and Sundays we are off, but we're here on holidays if the holiday falls during the week. The only day we don't serve is Veteran's Day in November because they (The American Legion) use the kitchen for breakfast, so we cancel that day.
The main goal is to provide them with a warm, nutritious meal. I think sometimes just the outside contact is important, too, because a lot of these people don't see anybody from one day to the next, and they don't have family around, so the Meals on Wheels people are their outside contact. Plus, we have found people who have fallen or have needed help and they knew the Meals on Wheels people were coming, so …
Question: That's gotta be a good feeling …
Answer: Yeah, to be able to help somebody. I think it's a good service. I just hope it's still here when I need it. I think it would be great to get a meal delivered, ready to eat and all I have to do is pull the top back and enjoy.
Question: And it costs them nothing?
Answer: No, it's $4 a day or $20 a week. It's cheaper than you can go to the grocery store for. They get a good meal. Today we did spaghetti and meatballs with warm peaches, a tossed salad, milk and bread and salad dressing. It's different every day, which I think would be great, too. They get something different every day for 5�½ weeks, then we start over.
Question: Around the holidays it's more turkey and stuffing?
Answer: Yes, and in the summer, for Labor Day, we do hot dogs, baked beans, warm potato salad and a melon cup. So they get a nice variety.
Question: Where does the food come from?
Answer: I order from U.S. Food Service all our canned goods, then we get our meat and produce from Giant Eagle. (Owner) Ed Bratton holds a golf tournament for us every spring and donates about $5,000. He feeds all the golfers for free. It's a lot of his members who come from Pittsburgh and around the area. It's at the country club and they enjoy coming and golfing there. He gives us our meat at a reduced price, and 5 percent off everything else we buy from him. It really helps.
The Catholic Church just had us as their mission project for the month of May and we got a check from them, along with a lot of paper towels and dish towels. That helps, too. Sometimes people remember us in their obituary and we get some money that way. Every little bit helps.
Question: What does the job do for you?
Answer: A good feeling, that you are helping other people who can't take care of themselves at this point in time. You're doing something good for someone who needs your help.
Question: Best part of the job?
Answer: Working in the kitchen … and meeting all the people. There are a lot of nice people in Indiana. I wouldn't be doing this if they weren't. So I get to interact with a lot of nice people. You have to have fun or they're not going to volunteer. We have fun. It's nothing too difficult. A lot of people say, “I can't do that because I'm not a very good cook.” You don't have to be a good cook; we've got the recipe. Just follow the recipe and I'm here. We don't do anything that difficult. Anybody could do it.
I think a lot of people think, “Oh, there's 60 people,” but it's really no different just cooking for a family, you just throw more in the pot and it has to get started early enough so that it gets cooked. We start cooking at 8 and finish at 11. Three hours. We pack the cold bags around 10 and until 11, we more or less just have coffee and talk. About a quarter to 11, we start with the hot tray, then it goes out about 11 to 11:15 and then they're back about an hour later.
We used to have four routes but didn't have enough volunteers and we were really low, right in the 40s, and we'd been there for a long time so I decided to go with three routes. That worked really well until just the last year and now they are up almost 20, and that's a lot. And the volunteers use their own gas and own car. If I had enough volunteers, I'd go back to four routes. That's 10 teams or 20 people, so I can't envision that that's going to happen and I have people waiting to get on.
Question: Do you ever do the delivering?
Answer: Yes, actually yesterday. It doesn't happen as often as you'd think, but every once in a while, or if I can't find somebody else to go, then it goes to me. We send two people, but you can do it alone. If you run into somebody down or needing help, it's easier with another person. The driver drives and the delivery person delivers.
Question: Is there an average age for the people receiving the meals?
Answer: No, basically, it's for the elderly, but we have served young people for various reasons. We once had a young guy who was in a body cast and couldn't get around. They (the seniors) are all basically living by themselves and it's no fun cooking for one person.
Anyone interested in volunteering some time to cook or deliver meals can contact Marty Yachisko at (724) 463-7676 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
