Every Wednesday morning for the past 23 years, Bill Berish has delivered food packages for Meals on Wheels. He comes by bus to Cummings Jewish Center for Seniors (CJCS) where the parcels are assembled. He has his breakfast and then makes his way across Westbury Avenue, through the laneways connecting the buildings of the Caldwell Residences, and up the elevators to his customer's apartments. On any given week, he has between six and eight stops to make.
The extraordinary thing is that some of the seniors to whom Bill is making deliveries are young enough to be his children. You see, Bill will turn 91 in March.
"I like to be active," he says humbly. And active he is. In addition to volunteering with meals on Wheels, he visits with patients at the Jewish Eldercare Hospital of Hope and Jewish Nursing Home campuses on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. On Friday he sings with the Cummins Center choir. Thursday, he refers to as his day off. Bill is also a very active member of Royal Albert/Laval Lodge, Knights of Pythias.
Bill is one of more than a dozen volunteers who make the weekly delivery of frozen meals around Code des Neiges, Cote St. Luc, Westmount, and St. Laurent. The service is available to anyone who needs assistance ensuring access to nutritious kosher food. That need can arise because a person is home-bound, has restricted mobility, or simply lacks the culinary skills to cook a proper meal. In other cases, the service is a helping hand for someone caring for a spouse and has so many demands on their time that having a meal prepared by someone else represents a great stress reliever.
Clients order a minimum of three meals and store them in their freezer, reheating them at their leisure.
There is also a daily kosher Meals on Wheels service that is coordinated by CJCS, but supplied through Maimonides, the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, Jewish Rehabilitation Center, and Jewish General Hospital. This program is designed for people who need to have a fresh meal provided as frequently as five times per week. The purpose is to allow people who are still capable of living at home, but not to prepare food for themselves, to maintain their independence for a long as possible. The volunteers who deliver to these people are sensitive to notice any changes that may signal that it is no longer safe for them to live alone, in which case they will suggest that a social worker intervene.
Meals recipients pay the full cost of between $4.25 and $6.00 per meal. those with reduced means may qualify of a subsidy programs.
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Anyone interested in volunteering as a Meals on Wheels delivery person is invited to contact the CJCS Volunteer Services. Anyone who thinks they could benefit from the service should contact CJCS's Support Services. Either can be reached at 514-342-1234 |
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