A Lifetime of Service: Why One Volunteer Keeps Showing Up for Seniors

A New Mission After Military Service

Ray Hussein, a 21-year veteran of the Air Force, has volunteered with Meals on Wheels for 12 years. Ray, who spent a lifetime serving his country, learned about the organization from a television advertisement shortly after retiring from the military. “I said, ‘That sounds like a very good program, and I have the time,’” Ray recalls. What keeps him coming back? A natural desire to help others.

“Volunteers have that in their heart to help someone,” Ray says. As a longtime volunteer with Meals on Wheels through the Peninsula Agency on Aging, located in Newport News, Virginia, Ray has learned enduring lessons about the transformative power of a nutritious meal, the value of providing valuable connection to homebound seniors and the difference a single person can make by committing to serving their community once a week. “It’s one hour of my day to give back to help someone,” Ray says. “It’s a privilege for me to be able to do that, as long as I’m healthy.”

More Than a Meal, A Meaningful Connection

When Ray, who delivers meals every Wednesday and sometimes twice a week as an emergency backup driver, began volunteering, he was surprised by the diverse profile of Meals on Wheels recipients.

“There were people who you assume have resources to get meals, but they still enjoyed the volunteers coming and giving them a meal, and that conversation and contact,” Ray says.

Ray quickly recognized that the benefits to seniors went far beyond a knock on the door and a nutritious meal.

Ray discovered that even a friendly conversation with a homebound senior helps combat loneliness and that a simple kindness, such as retrieving mail for a senior in a wheelchair, can significantly improve their quality of life. He also recognizes that meals play a vital role in supporting seniors by meeting their immediate needs and offering long-term health benefits that can be life-changing.

Over the course of seven years, Ray witnessed how consistent, nutritious meals helped a senior who could barely walk to the door become more active, speak more clearly, smile more easily and start driving herself to doctors’ appointments again. “She told me she’s feeling a lot better,” Ray says. “It’s amazing to see what’s happening with her.” Ray recognizes that without additional volunteers or advocates, transformative moments like this become less frequent.

Veterans Volunteering in Their Community Matters

“They’re most vulnerable,” Ray says of homebound seniors. “They have no voice, and being part of an organization that tries to help as best they can, it’s wonderful. We need more [volunteers], and hopefully, in time, we will have more.” Ray, who tries to recruit volunteers whenever he can, sends a powerful message to anyone considering volunteering for Meals on Wheels:

“As a human being, it’s part of our DNA to help someone who needs help. Turning away that response is bad for you.” Ray’s message is a call to action and a reminder that giving back provides as much to volunteers as it does to the seniors they serve. “Appreciation makes you feel pretty good,” Ray says of the gratitude he receives from seniors.

“It makes your day. With all the other things happening in the world, those things are important.”

Like Ray, it begins with committing to making a difference in your own community. “Being part of organizations like this fills my heart,” Ray says. “It’s my hope and prayer that this continues in the future, and other people get a chance to come out and be part of it. I think they will be so grateful that they had a chance to do this.”