This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Indiana Meals on Wheels program.
And today, the program is still going strong thanks to the volunteers, donations and to the Indiana American Legion.
Indiana's Meals on Wheels program began in 1971 when six women decided it was something that was needed in Indiana, according to the program's supervisor, Marty Yachisko. They started out using the kitchen facilities in the Willard Orphanage Country Home until fire damaged the building in 1976.
Yachisko said the Indiana American Legion Post 141 then offered their kitchen for use, rent-free.
"They're very good to us," said Yachisko, who's been supervising the program for 30 years. "They pay the utilities, and we don't pay to use the kitchen. We wouldn't be able to do this without them."
Recipients pay $4 per meal, and the program receives donations from the community to supplement the cost of making the meals. Giant Eagle holds a golf tournament each May and donates about $5,000 to $6,000, which helps maintain program operations.
Today, the program distributes 50 to 60 meals daily, or an average of 11,000 to 13,000 per year. Meals on Wheels operates five days a week, holidays and all, to bring meals to recipients in Indiana Borough, White Township and Homer City Borough.
The 120 volunteers -- cooks, drivers and carriers -- work one day every other week for a total of six hours a month, at most, according to Yachisko. Each day, four cooks prepare the meals and three sets of deliveries require one driver and one carrier for each route.
"The importance of the program is to check on the (recipients) to make sure they're OK," Yachisko said. "They're checked on every day, and that's why we tell them they need to be there."
Yachisko said people requesting to be on the program call in. There are no qualifications, "just a need," she said. She added that sometimes a hospital or hospice will call to put a patient on the program, as will family members.
As for the food choices, Yachisko said that a plan was done many years ago by a dietician. Something different is made every day for 5ﾽ weeks before the rotation repeats. There is no menu for recipients to choose from, because of the difficulty it would create.
A TYPICAL DAY starts around 8:30 a.m., with the cooks arriving to prepare the day's meal, which includes a type of casserole, salad and vegetable or meat, potato and vegetable, with dessert, bread and milk. Thursday's meal consisted of hamburger-tater tot casserole, pickled beet and egg salad, baby carrots and a fruit cocktail cake. Everything is made from scratch, right down to the moist cake, an old recipe. The cooks -- Alice Zaucha, Joyce Bowser, Carole Panaia and Julie Receski -- made sure no food went to waste, scooping up every last bit of casserole and every carrot from the pans as they joked with one another in the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Harry and Marty McFarland walked in to pick up their day's delivery, one cooler with the hot meals and one with paper lunch bags containing the cold items.
Marty McFarland, 76, has been involved with Indiana Meals on Wheels since its inception. Harry McFarland, 81, started volunteering when he retired in 1990.
"I was at the organizational meeting when it first started," Marty McFarland said. She said that while she took an occasional summer off, she never left the program.
"I just took time off for things I needed to do," she said. "I sometimes would take my daughter (on deliveries), too."
The McFarlands' first stop Thursday was Clairvaux Commons, "where we unload about half of our delivery," Marty McFarland said. They packed up seven trays in a basket and seven bags in another, and made their way among several floors of the building, starting at the top and working their way down. Normally, Harry McFarland does the driving, but because of the amount of meals at Clairvaux, he helps his wife with the deliveries.
Most people live alone, said Harry McFarland, but some may have housekeeping and family.
"I bet there's a good many that don't have other contacts or visitors during the day," he said. He added that some residents will leave a bag or basket outside their door to place the meals in if they aren't going to be home.
Once the meal has been delivered, it's checked off on a chart that the volunteers carry, along with how much was paid; recipients usually pay on Fridays but some will pay early if they aren't going to be home.
The chart also specifies if someone has a "marked tray" or a marked bag, Harry McFarland said, which indicates a special request or dietary restriction.
If someone doesn't answer the door when making a delivery, the chart also has a list of the recipients' names and phone numbers to try to reach them. Marty McFarland said the sisters at Clairvaux also are at the downstairs desk to call up if no one responds. She mentioned that other volunteers have found recipients deceased or in bad shape, but fortunately it has been only a few instances.
The McFarlands made their way through the hallways, delivering their meals, and Marty McFarland briefly exchanged niceties with the residents while Harry McFarland waited outside the door.
Marty McFarland said once in a while someone might have a story to tell or have something on their mind, "and we listen."
She spoke of a man she used to visit at home who liked to talk about politics.
"I tried to listen," she said with a laugh. "But it was always the same thing each time."
After making their rounds at Clairvaux, the McFarlands headed out Fourth Street toward Country Club Estates to a nice, big house for their next delivery to a husband and wife.
"High or low end, it doesn't matter," said Harry McFarland, sitting in the driver's seat as his wife walked to the front door. "A need is a need."
He added that their delivery routes change over the years because people leave to live with relatives or move to another residence where food is provided or they simply do not need the program.
Harry McFarland mentioned a perk in addition to helping out the community: tax deductions.
"I earn 14 cents for each volunteer mile I drive," he said, adding that he writes down his mileage daily. He said he can deduct several hundred dollars a year from his taxes simply by volunteering. Thursday's route usually logs 26 miles, he said.
Even when the weather gets bad, the McFarlands and other volunteers are out there delivering.
"We only called off once this past winter," Harry McFarland said. "People are supposed to have their driveways shoveled out for us to make our deliveries."
He said one time his wife plowed through several inches of snow, which went up past her boots. The resident thought Meals on Wheels wasn't running that day because of the weather, so he didn't have the driveway cleared for her.
Harry McFarland also said that volunteers who own four-wheel-drive vehicles sometimes will be called to fill in if other drivers aren't able to maneuver through the snow.
Marty McFarland added that rainy days can make things interesting as well.
"Some days you'll have a soaker where you're running around (trying to make deliveries), and you can't really carry an umbrella," she said. "Once in a while there's heavy rain. There's no escaping it."
ANOTHER husband-and-wife delivery team, Walter and Eleanor Gallati, have been volunteering for close to 23 years.
"It is one volunteer activity that we could do together," said Eleanor Gallati, 79, explaining that her husband, 83, has other volunteer activities he pursues, and she has her own. "It takes a minimum amount of time." The Gallatis volunteer every other Monday for roughly two hours a day.
"We leave the house at 10:30 and we're home by 12:30," Eleanor Gallati said. "For a small amount of time I think we provide help to those who need it."
She said she and her husband take away a "good feeling that we are of some help to people who need help, which is really why we do it."
"That is the sole purpose of it, really -- to help those who are not as fortunate as we feel that we are," she added.
Walter Gallati said he and his wife have delivered meals to "mostly ladies in their upper 90s often" and that their experience has stayed pretty routine over the years.
"But it's still interesting just to say 'How are you?' and try to get a little personal," Eleanor Gallati said.
"Sometimes we're the only person that these people see in the day, so we take a few minutes to chat with them and make them feel like they have a friend nearby," Walter Gallati added.
Eleanor Gallati said that she hasn't really formed any friendships or bonds with the people on her delivery route, but spoke of a lady at Clairvaux who always used to do jigsaw puzzles.
"It was marvelous," she said. "She would have these very intricate puzzles. And then she went out to St. Andrew's, so I visited her and took her a puzzle once."
Walter Gallati mentioned another woman who always talked about her collection of teacups.
"You don't know really how much to intrude on their personal lives, either," he said. "You want to be pleasant and cheerful, but I don't think it's right to intrude a lot on their personal lives."
"You do get to learn which people like to talk and which don't," Eleanor Gallati added. "The one man we deliver to is a Steelers fan, so it's always fun to deliver on Mondays because we say something about the game, win or lose."
The Gallatis said they have had rare occasions where they will go back to a recipient's house if they weren't able to get a hold of them when they arrive.
"We'll continue on our route, and if we call and they're home we'll go back and deliver their meal," Eleanor Gallati said. "I think that shows how dedicated we are."
"A lot of nice people come through here," Yachisko said of her volunteers.
More volunteers are needed to help deliver meals. Those interested in volunteering a couple hours a day twice a month can contact Yachisko between 8 a.m. and noon at (724) 463-7676.
