Marion Snavely volunteered with Meals on Wheels for 42 years before she passed away in 2017. Her incredible service of time, love, and various roles alone would have been enough for honor and praise but it wasn’t enough for Marion and her family. After she passed away, her estate donated $10,000 to the organization. Her obituary encouraged friends to make donations in her honor to Meals on Wheels of Lancaster. Honestly, her dedicated years and countless hours of volunteer service would have been enough but her legacy was so valued by her family that many of them took inheritance money she left them and donated significant amounts of money to the organization. Within months, her family and friends had donated cash, stock, and proceeds from stock performance to Meals on Wheels of Lancaster in her honor. We received over $20,000 in honor of Marion’s contributions to the Lancaster community through her service.

We are thrilled when organizations step up their efforts to support Meals on Wheels of Lancaster. Some organizations like AON encourage their employees to donate through matching funds. Other organizations, like LIstrak, allow their employees to volunteer with us during their working hours (and pay their wage while they volunteer). Then there are organizations that do both of those and more. QVC’s Hempfield plant shows incredible support to Meals on Wheels of Lancaster by encouraging their staff to volunteer AND by making large donations directly through the company as last year’s Business Match giver for the Lancaster County Community Foundation’s Extraordinary Give event.

Recurring donations are a great way to build your support into the budget, set it, and forget it. DavCon Relocation Services reached out to us a few years ago and said that they wanted to make us a sustainable part of their corporate giving. Every month, DavCon gives a recurring donation. It’s great for us, but it’s also been good to them. A few weeks ago we had a supporter of ours inform us they were moving and they chose DavCon because they saw on Facebook that they are a supporter of Meals on Wheels of Lancaster.

One client we have, Kim, says she doesn’t have as much money to give to the community as she would like but she chooses to give us an extra $15 a month. We are so grateful for the support that she gives. Sometimes when we see big dollars being donated we can feel small and less influential. That $15 a month donation is just as big to us. It is amazing what a whole bunch of good-hearted people can do if they all give small recurring donations. Our recurring donations bring in thousands of dollars a year when added together even if it seems small at $5, $15 or $50 dollars a month.

Lisa is a recipient of our home delivered meal program, but she does so much more. She is also a volunteer, writing and addressing the birthday cards for clients and volunteers and writing a sweet note of encouragement and appreciation to each person. It really helps us show people that are connected to us that we care about them and want to recognize them, but it also gives her a way to say thank you to us for the services she receives. As if that isn’t enough, she has the ability to direct some money out of a family foundation and recently provided us with a $6,000 donation on top of the amount she privately pays for the service. What an inspiration and model of the kind of community members we are fortunate to have.