News

   St. John's U.C.C. Community 

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MEALS ON WHEELS ROLLING INTO ST. JOHN’S

   Beginning July 7, St. John’s United Church of Christ will become a new pick-up location for volunteer delivery drivers from Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley. 

    On weekday mornings, six volunteer drivers will pick up hot and cold meals in our church atrium and deliver them to Meals on Wheels clients in the Emmaus area. 

     On May 13, our church consistory unanimously approved a request to use St. John’s as the Emmaus distribution point for Meals On Wheels, as part of our mission to serve our community. 

      St. John’s will become the organization’s ninth pick-up location. Previously it did not have one in southern Lehigh County.

 Using our church gives Meals on Wheels the opportunity to better serve its clients in the Emmaus area.  About 75 people will get meals delivered every weekday from St. John’s. 

    “With more people receiving Meals on Wheels in and around Emmaus, a pick-up site in the borough has been a long-standing need,” said Dawn Stillwagen, the non-profit’s director of volunteer services. “Thanks to St. John's, we are now better able to serve area residents while expanding opportunities for future growth.  We are grateful to join with a church known for its focus on the community and dedicated to improving the lives of those in need.”  

     “Meals on Wheels continues Jesus’ ministry of feeding the hungry,” said Dr. Paul Knappenberger, our church pastor.  “Having Meals on Wheels at St. John’s continues our mission and ministry to the people of Emmaus and beyond. We use our wonderful facility to bring all kinds of missions and ministries together.” 

    Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley provides home-delivered meals to homebound senior citizens and adults with disabilities. It helps nearly 1,500 people every day in Lehigh and Northampton counties, as well as in southern Carbon County. 

     Nick Nonnemacher, long-time director of food services at Meals on Wheels, will speak to our congregation about the organization’s varied work during our 9:15 a.m. worship service on June 22. He’ll talk about how homebound members of our congregation can benefit from Meals on Wheels as well as how we can become volunteer delivery drivers for the organization. 

     Clients have a choice of a cold meal, a hot meal, or both delivered every weekday morning.  On Thursdays, Meals on Wheels delivers extra meals for weekend use. It also deliveries extra meals before holidays or when bad weather is in the forecast. 

     Around 9:30 am on weekdays, except major holidays, a Meals on Wheels vehicle will deliver coolers containing cold meals and soft-sided red bags containing hot meals to our church atrium. (Those meals are prepared by Nonnemacher and his crew at Meals on Wheels’ main office in Allentown.)

  Within the next 30 minutes, volunteer drivers, some accompanied by friends or spouses who also volunteer, will pick up the coolers and bags to make their deliveries. Each driver will deliver to about 12 households. 

    After the drivers complete their deliveries, they will return the empty bags and coolers to the church. Those empty containers will be picked up by Meals on Wheels around noon that day or the following morning.

      Unless you stop by St. John’s on a weekday morning, the only evidence you may see of Meals on Wheels will be a tall  wheeled metal rack that holds empty food coolers and bags in the atrium. 

     Meals on Wheels has been serving people in the Lehigh Valley since 1971.  Seventy percent of its clients live on less than $16,000 a year.