that everyone gets their meals,
” she 
said. 
During COVID-19, Hepner says 
demand for the meals dramatically 
increased, sometimes to 160 deliveries 
a day from the current average of 95, 
as older people were so frequently con-
fined to their homes. Despite volunteers 
dealing with their own home-life concerns, 
there was never a day that deliveries were 
missed because of a lack of 
helpers to fill the 75 volunteer 
slots a week. 
“Many times, we were the 
only people our clients were 
seeing during the week,
” she 
adds, noting that the rela-
tionship between volunteers 
and clients is often reciprocal. “
As I now 
substitute for regular drivers, when people 
see me, they are always concerned about 
their usual volunteer, wanting to check that 
nothing is wrong with them,
” she says. “It’s 
very heartwarming.
”

FILLING A NEED
When NCJW|MI was founded in Detroit 
in 1891, its purpose was to find a need in 
the community and plug that need with 
volunteers and programs. So, in 1973, 
when Sonia Macy, president of the then-
named National Council of Jewish Women, 
Greater Detroit Section, saw a need to assist 
older adults in their homes by providing 
healthy meals, she and her fellow volunteers 
jumped right in. Working in conjunction 
with JFS and Jewish Senior Life (JSL), 

then called Jewish Apartments and 
Services, a vital program for Jewish 
senior adults was born. At that 
point, JFS did the intake and case 
management, and NCJW contracted 
with JSL
’s food providers to prepare 
the meals, with volunteers working to 
package each meal tray and then deliver it 
to approximately 200 seniors daily. 
For more than three decades, NCJW|MI 
volunteers ran the operation with day 
chairs and an overall chair for the program. 
Then, in 2008, NCJW|MI hired the first 
Meals on Wheels coordinator to work with 
the volunteers. Today, the program is run 
by NCJW|MI and JFS of Metro Detroit, 
with the Kosher Meals on Wheels coordi-
nator working closely with the volunteers 
who pack and deliver approximately 35,000 
meals per year to 12 routes around town. 
The operation is based at The J in West 
Bloomfield, and Epic Kosher Catering is 
contracted to provide the meals. Volunteers 
arrive at 7 a.m. to start packing meals for 

MAY 2 • 2024 | 9
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continued on page 10

RIGHT: 
Packing for Meals on 
Wheels in the 1970s.

FAR RIGHT: 
Babs Kaufman, 
Ellen Labes, Dorothy 
Kaufman, Rosie 
Schlussel and Sheila 
Guyer at a volunteer 
appreciation lunch 
mid 1980s.

BELOW: 
Packing for Meals on 
Wheels in the early days.

“THE PROGRAM IS ALLOWING PEOPLE TO STAY IN THEIR HOMES 
AS LONG AS THEY WANT, BUT IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE FOOD. 
SEEING A FRIENDLY SMILE ENHANCES THEIR LIVES AND 
MAKES A VERY BIG DIFFERENCE.”

— LINDA GREENFIELD

Evva 
Hepner

