DERBY — Growing up, Loretta Hoffsetz admired her mother for volunteering to deliver Meals on Wheels in Atwood, Kan., a tiny farming community in the northwest corner of the state.
Hoffsetz’s 50-year career as a hairdresser didn’t leave her much free time for volunteering, but she’s more than made up for it since retiring in 2010. She delivers hot meals to homebound residents here four days a week.
“I always wanted to be a Meals on Wheels person,” Hoffsetz said. “I always loved it.”
Hoffsetz, who also volunteers at the Derby Senior Center, was one of two volunteers recognized for logging more than 1,000 hours of service last year by the Sedgwick County RSVP program. She’s on track to do the same this year.
Hoffsetz has lived here since 1985. She and her husband, Gary, have two daughters and a grandson.
She delivers meals Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, making between eight and 12 stops each day. Hoffsetz typically gets to the senior center about 9:30 a.m. to begin packing up the meals, and she’s done with her route no later than noon.
She doesn’t just drop off the meals. For her, the value of the program is interacting with recipients.
“I love the people and how appreciative they are,” she said. “Sometimes we’re the only ones they see. It just makes my day. I brought them something good, and they’re happy.”
On those rare days when another volunteer does her route, she said, recipients “get really worried (and say), ‘Where’s Loretta?’”
On several occasions, Hoffsetz has realized that a Meals recipient was in need of medical assistance and summoned help.
She became particularly close to one elderly woman who was living at The Greens apartments in Derby. “I kind of adopted her. She was like my mother.”
Hoffsetz realized the woman was experiencing some cognitive decline, and became more concerned after finding smoke coming from her kitchen one day. With the woman’s consent, she helped set up a doctor’s appointment, and the woman eventually moved to assisted living.
“I kept in very close contact with her, and she died just before she turned 100. That one was one of my really special times.”
Hoffetz said being a Meals volunteer even provides a little exercise as she lugs meals from her Lincoln Nautilus to recipients’ front doors.
“I just pray they have a handrail to go up the steps.”
To learn more or review volunteer opportunities, call (316) 660-5120. You can also visit Sedgwickcounty.org and type “RSVP” into the search box.
