30: Kim Huntsman

Volunteer, Meals on Wheels

Kim Huntsman has been a volunteer with Meals on Wheels volunteer for 20 years. She gives about five hours every week to the program, which is supported by Berks Encore. She continued her work as a route coordinator during the shutdown, but the pandemic made her role much more challenging. It was difficult to keep volunteers on board because of people’s health concerns, so Kim had to pull in some of her own friends and family to fill the schedule gaps. However, ultimately, people really stepped up when they needed to. People who had been laid off or were working from home and suddenly had more flexibility were coming on board, and some old volunteers took on more work so that things were able to keep running smoothly.                 

The meal part of the program is obviously important, but Kim maintains that being a volunteer for Meals on Wheels is more about human connection. The people receiving the services often need someone to talk to, and the volunteers end up getting really get close to the people they deliver for. Also, the volunteers are able to report it if any of the delivery recipients are not doing well, if they are in poor health or if they’ve fallen. It is not just about delivering food, but about community and human contact, and that is something which the pandemic has made much harder. With interactions being limited out of necessity and some recipients even asking for no contact deliveries, it has become difficult to foster that same level of connection.  

Kim has seen so much tragedy and suffering come out of the pandemic, but she always believes that “good will come out of people when you least expect it.” She tries to always see the ways in which people put their best feet forward in times of struggle, and she has observed that in how people are forging stronger bonds with their families.