We have a lot of dedicated volunteers at National Life who cheerfully give of their time in the community.
Occasionally, one of them gets the attention she deserves. Kris Clark, who works in Corporate Actuarial, is one.
She’s been a long time volunteer for the Meals on Wheels program. The Montpelier Senior Activity Center recently featured her in its monthly newsletter, and we’re sharing it below.
By Mel Cambel
We in Central Vermont have the benefit of many generous souls who work on a regular basis to ensure that Vermonters have access to healthy food. One of those souls is Kris Clark, who has been an employee at National Life for over thirty-five years. For more than twenty-five of those years, she has been volunteering for FEAST at Home, aka Meals on Wheels. This volunteer gig fits well in the mission of National Life: Do good. Be good. Make good.
Clark began volunteering on the delivery route years ago, when Lorie Rice invited her to ride along on a delivery day. She said, “Oh, I was hooked” after that first ride. During that time period, the meals were prepared in the National Life cafeteria. That made it simple for volunteers to go down to the cafeteria, pick up the meals, do their route, then return to work.
Over time, Kris took over the job of coordinating the volunteer drivers who delivered food five days a week. Each month, she submits a schedule of drivers (including herself in the rotation!) for each day. About eight years ago, MSAC took over the program and meal production, which for some years was in partnership with Just Basics, Inc. Volunteers now go to MSAC to pick up the meals, which are packed in coolers, and the route sheets, do their deliveries, then return the coolers and route sheets to the MSAC, and return to work at National Life.
On the surface, delivering meals to seniors looks pretty straightforward. However, for this to work seamlessly, there has to be some glue that holds all the pieces together. Enter Jessica Sanderson, who manages the FEAST program, which includes Feast at Home and the FEAST Together or To-Go meal that is served on Tuesdays and Fridays at MSAC. Her responsibility is to provide the best food for the most people who are sixty and over. MSAC contracts with Good Taste Catering for the food and its preparation. They are paid by the meal. Jessica, in turn, is responsible for supporting volunteer management, reporting and paperwork, which specifies each client, their dietary needs, and address. Route sheets are the basis for reimbursement and accounting– one route sheet for each of four routes each day.
Pre-Covid, volunteer drivers made deliveries to each client on each route on a daily basis. Now the delivery schedule has changed dramatically. Each route now has a delivery one day a week, with each client receiving a weekly allotment of meals on delivery day – most frozen. Only one volunteer drives per day, four days each week. Some clients receive as many as seven meals per week. If there is a couple in the house, double the count.
Clearly this new schedule has made an impact on everything from meal preparation to delivery. FEAST’s chef, Mike Morse, during the pre-Covid iteration, prepared meals each day for all the recipients on each route, balancing out a pre-submitted monthly menu. Now he is supplying a week’s worth of prepared meals each day for one distinct route. Jessica remarked that Mike pulls this off because he is a former Marine “who brings his A-game in every day and is unbelievably efficient.” I might add energetic.
As the chain reaction moves along, the volunteer corps is significantly reduced since only one person drives each week. What Kris made clear was that the drivers on the National Life route get as much out of their work as the clients they serve. She has a wonderful team of volunteers that come from NLG, retired employees of NLG, Northfield Savings Bank and other members of the Montpelier community. They are calling and asking when they can drive again. “They want to help but understand they don’t want to get anyone infected,” Kris explained. Kris also is out of sorts without her role both organizing and going out to deliver. A people person–who also serves as a Holiday Elf delivering gifts to people in December–she both misses her clients, her team, and Jessica. “I just love them,” she repeated throughout the interview. Jessica has helped bridge the lack of built-in visiting with a new mode of connection. Kris is calling a list of thirteen people on her route every Monday and Thursday to check to see how they’re doing. Talk about taking care of community.
I came away from my conversation with Kris astounded at her positivity. When I asked her about her optimism, she laughed and began riffing about volunteering. “It makes me feel real good. I wish more people would volunteer. It would make them feel better and make the world a much better place.” And Jessica clearly loves her work and the people she connects with. Her mission is “All creeds, all breeds.” She could not say enough about how much she learns from the people she works with, commenting that she learns from all of them. The collective spirit of Kris and Jessica contributes so much to the Central Vermont community. We are indeed blessed to have this piece of the senior meals system in such generous hands. Thanks!