A service organization that brings hot meals to senior citizens is currently understaffed and looking for volunteers.

Cass County Meals on Wheels, which is facilitated by the Cass County COA, brings hot lunches to senior citizens Mondays through Fridays. The organization is currently down four volunteers and is poised to lose more as the weather gets colder and volunteers who are retired head to warmer climates, said Bobbie Krynicki, volunteer coordinator for the COA.

“We need to 10 to 16 volunteers a day for our Meals on Wheels program,” Krynicki said. “Twelve to 20 is a better number, and we don’t really have that right now. In November, we tend to lose some of our older volunteers because they head south, and we lose them until the spring time frame. Then we are really, really short of volunteers.”

Recently, four volunteers retired, leaving the organization short staffed. This prompted Meals on Wheels to publish a call for volunteers to take routes and deliver meals.

“Volunteering [for Meals on Wheels] is giving back to the community,” Krynicki said. “Many of our seniors were pillars in the community. [Volunteering for Meals on Wheels] is an opportunity to support them after they have spent many years supporting us and the community.”

To be a volunteer, one would need to pass a background check. Once approved, the COA would train the volunteer and show them the routes they would need to drive.

Once trained, volunteers would pick up food from the COA between 10 to 10:30 a.m. and be finished delivering around noon on weekdays. Volunteers can choose the days and frequency that they chose to volunteer.

“You can be as involved as you want,” Krynicki said. “There’s a three-hour or less commitment a day. That’s our goal.”

Volunteers for Meals on Wheels will need to provide their own transportation, though they will be reimbursed for mileage.

The more volunteers that offer to drive for Meals on Wheels, the better the service will be, Krynicki said.

“It’s difficult operating with fewer volunteers,” Krynicki said. “The volunteers sometimes have to take two and three shifts, which has a negative impact not only on the volunteer, because it impacts things they may have wanted to do later in the day, but it also makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to get our meals out to our seniors during lunch time and while the food is still hot.”

Despite the shortage of volunteers, Krynicki said that meals will still go out to seniors and that the only time meals will not be delivered is during serious weather, in which case, the organization will plan a way for seniors to get their meals ahead of time.

Jennifer Ray, the director of the Cass County Library, is currently a Meals on Wheels volunteer.

Seeing the volunteering as a way to stay connected to the community, Ray would encourage everyone to volunteer.

“It’s more than just delivering a meal. Sometimes, you are the only person these seniors see in a day,” Ray said. “You make a connection with them. It’s not work.”

One of the backbones of the COA’s Meals on Wheels program is Jones’ Dave Kring, who has volunteered his services to the agency for nearly 15 years, he said. Kring currently delivers food five days a week: his routes on Mondays and Tuesdays take him through the Dowagiac area, his Wednesday run has him stopping at houses outside of Niles, and his Thursday and Friday drives have him service residents living in the south part of Cass County, through Edwardsburg.

Pouring a large amount of time — and miles — into his work is something Kring said he is used to by now. For 26 years, the Jones man served as a rural newspaper carrier, a task that required him to travel up and down the Cass County area during the twilight of the early morning hours to deliver papers.

“It’s a lot simpler to do this during the daylight,” he said.

For Kring, volunteering with the COA is more than just about keeping active since his retirement. The driver has survived three bouts with cancer, which has prompted him to spend his remaining time committed to making a difference in the lives of others, he said.

“I see this is a chance to give something back, because I’m lucky to still be here,” Kring said.

While he does not receive a paycheck for his efforts, volunteering with Meals on Wheels carries its own rewards, he said. Over the years, Kring has met a lot of new faces, and has gotten a chance to share stories and laughs with his fellow drivers, who sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee together before heading on their routes, as well as gather for lunch inside the COA cafeteria after they get back.

It is also incredibly rewarding to know he is giving back to the county’s housebound population, who come from many sorts of backgrounds and walks of life, Kring said. While he may only spend a few moments a day with the seniors he delivers food to, the volunteer said he knows it makes a big difference in their quality of life.

“For a number of people I visit, I may be the only person they see that day,” he said.

Kring encouraged everyone who is able to pitch in and help with the effort, especially senior citizens, whose experience and wisdom makes them one of the community’s greatest assets, he said.

“We are providing a service that not many others can fulfill,” Kring said. “That is the biggest thing, for me.”