Want to give back to your community? Meet new people? Help others in need? Then being a volunteer driver for Mountain Meals on Wheels is for you!!
MMOW is proud to have a dedicated team of volunteer drivers delivering meals to our recipients Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year (with exceptions of six major holidays and severe snow days). We provide our volunteer driver teams with transport coolers for the meals, up-to-date route sheets to help them navigate their respective routes, and stand-by support in the event they have any issues during their route. During the pandemic period, we also are providing our drivers with sanitizing products, masks, and special procedures to ensure their safety and the safety of our recipients.
An on-line driver’s calendar is provided a month in advance to allow drivers a look-ahead to plan their schedule and to make adjustments to accommodate last minute changes and their own vacation/personal schedules.
In normal (i.e. per-COVID-19) times, training of new drivers involves a) a short in-person training of our food delivery processes and procedures, b) a walk-though orientation of the hospital kitchen pick-up process, and finally, c) a drive-along of a food delivery on the route to be assigned to the new driver. However, in today’s CDC and local government requirements for maintaining social distancing, training of new volunteer driver candidates requires some rather creative thinking. .
Training of new drivers is now conducted via teleconference. As for the drive-along, our Volunteer Coordinator conducts a car-caravan and uses cell phones during the detailed drive-along training. The new volunteer driver follows in separate cars as our Coordinator (via cell phone) explains the route and the procedure of delivering food to each recipient on the route. We have trained numerous volunteer drivers using this method, and it has allowed our driver team to grow to keep up with the demand.
Our service territory stretches from Cedar Pines Park to Green Valley Lake, and is divided into several driving routes, one driver per route, with each route starting from Mountains Community Hospital. Each route should take no more than two hours to complete.
The territory served by Mountain Meals on Wheels
Some volunteer drivers are scheduled to drive once each week while others drive once or twice per month. You can even volunteer to be a “runner” and deliver the meals while the driver prepares for the next stop. We try to assign our volunteer drivers a route closest to where they live on the mountain.
Our only requirements are:
a) You enjoy driving and meeting people and are physically able to climb stairs,
b) You have a valid California Drivers License, and
c) You maintain a valid liability insurance policy on your vehicle
We are always in need of drivers. If you are interested in volunteering or want to find out more, please send your contact information to: volunteer@mountainmealsonwheels.org or call us at 909-436-8065.
This is a great way to give back to your community, help our neighbors in need and meet some great people…all while driving around our beautiful mountain area. We hope to hear from you!