As a footnote in recent human history, the height of the pandemic is a time many of us have rushed to forget.
Thankfully unexpected (and beautiful) opportunities were also discovered during this strange cultural period — new patterns and rituals that continue to shape our daily lives. For one father-daughter duo, Greg Miller and Sara Miller, the moment inspired them to seek new ways to help others find light in the darkness, a power inherent in acts of kindness.
In 2020, Greg was deeply immersed in pivoting the elements of his leadership development business — the face-to-face interactions, training facilitation and coaching — into a virtual environment. The transition freed up time to explore how he could make an impact in his Northeastern Illinois community of Grayslake.
“It was a good time to look for new ways to contribute because a lot of people were struggling for all kinds of reasons,” Greg recalls.
As Greg remembers it, volunteering with
Meals on Wheels Northeastern Illinois was the most seamless option — providing the chance to do good, to do something that fit into his schedule as he started ramping his work back up and that, most importantly, he could do in partnership with his 13-year-old daughter, Sara, as an invaluable opening to strengthen an already strong bond in a strange time.
“It was about creating time together,” Greg says. “We knew every weekend, we would have a Saturday, usually two and a half hours, and it was going to be our time. We'd be in a car, driving around, having all kinds of great conversations, building our routines, laughing and having fun.”
It was a labor of love to support their clients, made more special by the added benefit of sacred one-on-one time, despite the occasional guest appearance by Mom.
“It became something that we both love to do, especially helping other people,” Sara shares, elaborating that this is the first time they’ve participated in such an intensive volunteer experience, though they’ve stepped up in the past to volunteer at bookstores and food packing events.
“We have never been involved in something that we plugged into and kept doing over time,” Greg adds. “That's been a lot of fun.”
Three years later, it remains an integral part of their lives and a cherished tradition that’s been paused for the past few months as Sara completes a semester-long art school in Napa, California. Dutifully, of course, Sara hit the road again with her dad during a recent Spring Break.
“It was great to see our clients for those Saturdays; they missed her and she missed them,” Greg says of the chance to reconnect with their beloved Meals on Wheels clients.
Innovation’s Helping Hand
Today, Greg and Sara are pros, but getting up to speed was not without its challenges.
In those early days, Greg and Sara did much of the work manually, building their own ad-hoc systems, including ways of organizing meals — sides, drinks and all — and mapping out their path — a testament to their commitment and, by their own admission, the result of a shared knack for problem-solving.
“I've learned a lot about taking initiative and figuring out how to solve problems,” Sara admits. “Meals on Wheels has done a lot [around] teaching me how to go with the flow and not get stressed out when things don't go exactly according to plan.”
Over the last three years, those challenges lessened thanks in large part to experience and the local Meals on Wheels program’s ingenuity and integration of new technologies, leading to more efficiency — aiding their ability to serve more than 50 clients.
“Now there's an app,” Greg says. “It's organizing the route for us, and we're placing orders for people, for the next week. It's all done through there.”
A year of free maintenance, awarded in the fall of 2022, from Meals on Wheels America’s national partner Jiffy Lube has also helped ensure the “
local heroes’” stay road ready for the long Saturday drives.
It’s More than a Meal
It’s the human connections, though, not the efficiency that keeps them coming back. As the darkest days of the pandemic dissipated, Greg and Sara were gifted the chance to really get to know their clients — building relationships that endure to this day.
As Greg recalls following the dialing back of restrictions on in-person interaction, “We were stepping inside people's homes, helping them get the food where it needs to go, having conversations with them and getting to know them.”
Sara agrees.
“The beautiful thing about Meals on Wheels is, it's not just a clientele relationship,” Sara asserts. “There's also a friendship that blooms between us and the people we deliver food to. It's not just a handoff of the meals; we’ll go in and talk to clients for a few minutes, talk about our days and share about each other. That's one of the most rewarding parts, getting to know people.”
And while some of their clients have come and gone, they note the chance to meet new people and new clients is equally welcome. It’s about deep connections, the ones that were hastily severed by the isolation of the pandemic, persistent isolation that many seniors continue to face, even as the world has recaptured a sense of pre-pandemic “normalcy.”
The Power of Empathy
Throughout their journey as Meals on Wheels volunteers, Greg and Sara have learned a great deal about themselves, the importance of goodwill and the ways compassion can feed the soul and offer moments of self-reflection, all added benefits to ensuring clients get the meals they need to stay healthy and the maintaining of relationships essential to helping them overcome isolation.
Truthfully, Greg and Sara need their clients as much as their clients need them.
“Giving back to people is an essential part of life if you're lucky enough to have the time and energy,” Sara encourages. “Helping people is not only good for other people, but it also gives a little bit back to yourself. It helps you become more aware and develop gratefulness for what you have.”
Greg agrees, noting that many of their senior clients have fallen on hard times and how important it is to be present to that.
“[We must have] empathy for what they're facing and recognize that even in small ways, we can be doing some things that are helping people and having an impact.”
Greg remarks that Meals on Wheels is an irreplaceable part of their lives.
“I couldn't imagine not doing it. It just feels like, ‘Of course, you do this.’ You get up and brush your teeth in the morning while you find a way to devote some of your time, efforts and energy to helping other people.”
The two only hope their example has a ripple effect, even if it’s the tiniest one – because that’s all that matters, being a small part of something bigger than themselves.