From: Bob Judge
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 9:03 PM
To: 'Charlotte Buijnarowski'; Charlotte C. Buijnarowski
Cc: Rev. Lori Souder; Kathleen Ryan, Take and Eat, Inc.
Subject: ...
Charlotte:
...
...
Kathleen: Thank you for your presence today! I have notes from today, for instance, those people who the drivers expected to find at home, but did not. I will send you a separate email with those details.
1. One suggestion that was made today was that we phone the people the night before, that is, on Friday night, to remind them that we will be there on Saturday.
2. A question arose today from a driver who found a woman to be not at home. This client happens to be one for whom you had provided me with an “emergency contact,” the phone number of her daughter, which I had given the driver. The driver wanted to phone the daughter to tell her that her mother had not answered the door. I said to the volunteer that I was under the impression that we should only use an emergency phone number (when we have one) in a situation more urgent that a client simply not answering the door. Indeed, several clients for whom I do not have emergency phone numbers did not answer their door today. In other words, I have thought that a driver should only phone an emergency contact if, for instance, he found that a client had fallen or was ill but had not informed anyone. So, I will appreciate your advice here. If a driver has an emergency phone number for a client, should he/she phone that number simply if the client does not answer the door?
I am sure that Charlotte or others will get other suggestions about we can improve things for November. We will surely want to tweak things as we get more experience. Coming up with responses to the two questions above, and others that we think of this coming week, can help us create revised and improved directions for all to follow in November.
- Bob
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Dear Bob,
It was my pleasure to be with all of the “Food For Friends” volunteers yesterday – you all did a great job organizing this ministry and I commend you for all of your efforts toward launching this community service at Center Church’s Kitchen and providing a fourth weekend wellness check and delicious meals for the homebound senior community in S. Hadley, Granby. As Deacon Frank states in his homilies on this ministry “food is God’s love made edible”…and I know all of those folks could taste the love yesterday! He certainly did!!!
Bob, you are correct in your usage of the emergency number.
In terms of those folks who were not at home, please provide me with that information and I will contact them to determine the reason they were not at home to receive the meal.
While it is possible that some of them may be confused about a Saturday rather than the usual Sunday delivery, I know all of them were informed not only by WMEC via the announcement letter and S. Hadley/Granby Weekend Meals Schedule we furnished but also via distribution of the announcement/schedule with the last meal delivery by St. Patrick’s.
My position is that these clients are primarily homebound and know they need to be at home to receive the meals. There are, however, some clients who attend Church Services and do not return home in time for meal delivery and we have made arrangements to accommodate those situations and they are noted on the client list. Also, there are some clients in certain areas who either have some form of dementia or simply forget certain details and we have instructions to call them prior to the meal delivery to remind them…there also are a small percentage of clients who have some form of disability and have requested a call prior to delivery.
I have e-mailed the other churches in S. Hadley/Granby to confirm to me that there aren’t any other clients they are aware of who require pre-call accommodations – other than those already noted. Should there be any, I will share with you.
Let’s see what I determine from the clients who weren’t at home before you make your decision about needing to call clients prior to the meal.
