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KINGSTON &mdash; On Friday morning, while many of us probably haven&rsquo;t even had our morning coffees yet, volunteers and organizers at Meals on Wheels of the Wyoming Valley were already thinking about dinner.
				Dozens of dinners, to be exact.
				But there are fewer volunteers than there used to be, with the pandemic forcing many of the organization&rsquo;s volunteers to stay home. And now organizers are hopeful that some more people answer the call to help deliver meals to those in our area who need them the most.
				Amy Morris, program coordinator for the Meals on Wheels Branch, met with a reporter early Friday morning, along with Gary Williams, vice president of the board. According to Morris, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant such a significant loss of volunteers who had to stay home to stay safe that the number of deliveries had to be reduced.
				&ldquo;We were, and still plan on being, a traditional five-day program, Monday through Friday,&rdquo; Morris told a reporter during a socially distanced interview at the organization&rsquo;s headquarters, based out of the Church of Christ Uniting in Kingston. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lost volunteers due to safety issues, so we&rsquo;ve gone from five-days to three-days.&rdquo;
				Morris was quick to point out that &mdash; thankfully &mdash; none of their volunteers have passed away as a result of the virus, but she said that a large portion of their volunteers are in more vulnerable groups.
				That said, though, Morris said that Meals on Wheels has been trying to overcome the challenges of the virus, notably by increasing the amount of food delivered to counteract the decrease of deliveries.
				&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve kind of overcome the challenge aspect, because we send out extra food on the days we do deliver, so they&rsquo;re getting just about the same amount of food that they got on the five-day program, it&rsquo;s just down to three days a week,&rdquo; Morris said.
				Williams said that, when the pandemic first hit in March, meal deliveries had to stop for a week.
				&ldquo;And then we identified maybe 10 or 12 people who we knew or felt wouldn&rsquo;t get any food, and we delivered to them for about a month or so,&rdquo; Williams said, before adding that it was the nearby Ollie&rsquo;s Restaurant in Edwardsville who prepared the meals for those beneficiaries while the Meals on Wheels kitchen was temporarily shut down.
				But as everyone collectively got more used to the &ldquo;new normal&rdquo; that COVID-19 brought, Meals on Wheels eventually got back into the swing of things, and is currently serving about 90 clients around the Wyoming Valley.
				However, that doesn&rsquo;t mean there aren&rsquo;t any challenges. Williams said that, while the financial situation isn&rsquo;t a worry thanks to numerous donors, there could always be more donors, as the local Meals on Wheels chapter does not receive any state or federal funding. The bigger challenge comes down, simply, to people.
				&ldquo;Our biggest challenge&#8230; is volunteers,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;We used to have enough people Monday through Friday to have the 12 routes covered; now we&rsquo;re struggling a little bit to get enough people Monday, Wednesday and Friday.&rdquo;
				Morris said, ideally, about 20 new volunteers who would be regularly available would be needed to get back to a five-day schedule. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, Morris said you can call her at her desk at 570-288-1023. She&rsquo;s available to take calls on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 7 a.m. and noon.
				A few volunteers were in the kitchen on Friday preparing the meals that would be delivered that day, including several members of local healthcare agencies, who were there to provide blankets that would be distributed to clients.
				&ldquo;Every year for the holidays we always try to send out special treats and stuff,&rdquo; Morris said. &ldquo;This year is gonna be really tough because normally we sit down with our clients and try to visit &#8230; and this year we can only wave and that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;
				Morris said that it&rsquo;s even tougher for some of the clients, who don&rsquo;t have much social interaction otherwise.
				In addition to more volunteers, Williams said the organization also has openings on its board, so if you are interested in that position, Williams said you can contact them for that as well.

Meals on Wheels looking for volunteers in face of pandemic