Monrovia Senior Center starts Meals on Wheels to boost residents’ nutrition

MONROVIA – A new site for the Meals on Wheels program has opened operations at Monrovia Community Center, 254 Allen Drake Drive in Huntsville. The launch culminates five years of planning for this site.

The launch included leaders with Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments or TARCOG, Alabama Department of Senior Services or ADSS, Madison County, City of Huntsville and Madison County Council on Aging.

“On Nov. 17, there were 25 individuals in the Monrovia community who received hot meals, which were delivered by volunteers from within the community,” TARCOG Executive Director Michelle Gilliam Jordan said. Jordan is excited to see this day arrive and added that “it’s more than making a delivery . . . it’s helping a family in need.”

Monrovia Senior Center is the fourth opening for Meals on Wheels this year, Brittani Harris said. Harris works as Elderly Nutrition Program Director for ADSS. “In my mind, this is the version of government and community that everybody really wants to see,” Harris said.

“This is what the purpose of government is . . . to work together to meet the needs of the community and to care for people on an individual basis the way you would care for your family,” Harris said.

Harris said a gap had existed in the ability to serve residents in Monrovia; now, that gap has been filled. “We will have volunteers coming daily, preparing hot meals for residents, and people coming to pick up the meals for delivery,” Harris said. “We’re excited to serve this growing community and looking forward to welcoming volunteers and participants in the future.”

“It’s a great partnership between Meals on Wheel, ADSS and TARCOG working together to meet the needs of the community and provide hot, homebound meals,” Harris said. “Those meals help caregivers, who can provide a breakfast and a dinner, but their loved one being able to get a delicious homebound meal keeps them working and the household running, and that’s all we’re here for.”

Madison County Commissioner Phil Vandiver and Studio 60 Executive Director Tom Glynn shared the hope that, in time, the Monrovia site will expand into a full-service center for Meals on Wheels.

Good Shepherd Church supplied many of the volunteers.

Other community partners who wished success for Meals on Wheels in Monrovia included Rene Breland, TARCOG, Area Agency on Aging, Advisory Council President; Rodrick Debardelaben, TRIO Community Meals, Alabama Food Service Director, Guntersville; Sheila Dessau-Ivey, TARCOG Director of Aging Programs; Patrick Clay, TRIO Delivery Driver; Michelle Jordan, TARCOG Executive Director; Emmitt Davis, TARCOG Community Service Coordinator; Rosalyn Leavell-Rice, STUDIO 60 Nutrition Coordinator; Michelle Georgantis, Manager, Monrovia Senior Center; Ellen Gnassi and Diane Pearson, Monrovia Senior Center Volunteers; and Michael Kitchen, Monrovia Community Center Director.