Grandpa, grandson make delivery team

Published 9:04 am Friday, March 27, 2009

For the past 2 1/2 years, Albert Lea resident Marlin Herfendal has devoted an hour or two every Thursday morning to deliver meals through Meals on the Go.

He drives to Albert Lea Medical Center, meets with the other drivers who have volunteered that day and then picks up the meals to deliver to various places around town.

On normal days, Herfendal carries both the hot meals and the bags that have a few side items in them. But during school breaks — such as spring break and the summers — his now 10-year-old grandson Ian Wildeman joins him.

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Wildeman becomes the bag man, as the grandfather and grandson call it, and Herfendal carries the meals.

“I enjoy it because it’s nice for all the people we visit,” Wildeman said. “I enjoy bringing it to them so I do a good deed.”

Herfendal and his 10-year-old helper are two of more than 50 volunteers who help make the Meals on the Go program successful.

On Thursday, the grandfather-grandson team left Herfendal’s house just after 10 a.m. and drove to ALMC to begin their duties.

They walked down to the first floor of the hospital to the cafeteria and sat down with a handful of other drivers to wait for their hot food to be dished up and put into warming bags to be delivered.

Once the food was ready to go, Herfendal picked up the hot meals and Wildeman picked up the smaller bags. Then they were ready to begin their route.

Wildeman held the clipboard in the backseat of the car as his grandfather drove to the houses of the names on the list.

One by one, the grandfather and grandson team arrived at a house and delivered a hot meal and a bag of side items to a person who had requested the service. Many of the people’s eyes lit up when they saw the visitors, especially when they saw Wildeman. They expressed their thanks.

Herfendal said a lot of the people he delivers to live alone and don’t get much company throughout the week.

The 10-year-old Hawthorne Elementary School student said he likes helping his grandpa so he can do his part to serve in the community. Plus, it’s a time for him and his grandpa to be together.

After about an hour or less of delivering meals — usually to about 10 different places — Wildeman and Herfendal drop their carrying bags back off at ALMC.

It begins over with a different volunteer the next day.

“It’s a great program,” said Meals on the Go Co-Chairman Terry Cochran. “Our volunteers are unbelievable.”

Cochran said through the program, which has been going since 1973, people pay $2.75 a meal for up to five meals a week. Volunteers even deliver on holidays.

The only weekdays they don’t deliver are if school is closed, Cochran said.

Though the group functions well with its volunteers, he said it could use a few additional drivers — as there is a waiting list of about 20 or 30 people who can’t get food unless there are more drivers.

Volunteer drivers generally drive just one day a week, servicing a hot meal and a few side items to about 10 people.

To add one more route — which would service about 10 people — there would need to be an additional five drivers, one for each day of the work week.

Other volunteers check to make sure the meals are correct or to collect the bags at the end of the deliveries.