Increasing gas prices are now taking a toll on a meal delivery service for seniors in San Diego. Meals on Wheels says volunteer drivers are dropping out because of the cost of gas. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
The non-profit San Diego Meals on Wheels program says it's lost more than 30 percent of its volunteer drivers since the start of the year.
The group blames rising gasoline prices.
Ryan Belmer with the San Diego Meals on Wheels program says drivers do more than deliver food.
They also do a safety check to make sure the elderly are healthy. Many of them are homebound.
He says for some seniors, the daily meal delivery is their only contact with the outside world.
Belmer: The folks in town that need the meals are hungry. And we desperately need volunteers to come down and help deliver meals. And it's a great experience. There's a lot of volunteers that are still there have developed friendships with the people that they deliver the route on for years. So it's a wonderful thing but we definitely, definitely, are in dire need of volunteers.
Because there's fewer drivers, the remaining volunteers are driving longer routes to deliver the 1500 meals seniors receive each week.
Belmer says that puts a strain and cost on existing drivers, who are now driving more miles and spending more money on gasoline.
Ed Joyce, KPBS News.
