TYLER (KYTX) - Gas prices continue to hover around 4 dollars a gallon nationwide. Here in East Texas they top out around 3.73.
That pain at the pump is causing some real worries for East Texas non profits like Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels volunteers, who fill up on their own dime, to back out of a program that feeds needy seniors.
Meals on Wheels client, Edna, lives strictly on social security and says without Meals on Wheels, it'd be hard for her to survive.
"I'm one of about 26 in this area and I'm not the only one who depends on it," Edna says.
She's spent the summer watching gas prices rise, and volunteer numbers fall.
"I've lost so many of the regular people that have been coming to see me."
Meals on Wheels Director of Development, Zoe Lawhorn, says losing those volunteers, severely impacts the company's expenses.
"We go through an average of 6,000 gallons of gas every month. So even if it increases just by 10 cents a gallon, that is a $7200 dollar impact on us a year," Lawhorn says.
That money would normally go to feeding more people, and keeping the company running. Lawhorn says her priority is her clients.
"The meals are going to go out no matter whether we do them all ourselves or the volunteers do it."
A lot of the time, staff members are forced to drop their office work to run the 125 daily routes currently left abandoned each month.
"They have their own jobs," Edna says, "I just wonder, well is it going to come to a point, they've already cut out delivering on Friday, we get a frozen meal. What's going to happen? Are they going to come out here one time a week?"
Rising gas prices are causing worry for those who depend on the daily meals, and stress for a company determined to keep services running.
If these numbers keep rising, Meals on Wheels say the first thing it will do is hire more paid drivers so the hired staff members can get their own jobs done in the office, and keep the business running.
To offset the economic impact from rising gas prices, Lawhorn says Meals on Wheels is constantly looking for volunteers and donations. Volunteers only work one to one and a half hour shifts, and can choose what days they want to help out. The non profit company says any help would make things easier.
For more information about volunteering or donating to Meals on Wheels, visit the website at www.mealsonwheelseasttexas.org or call Zoe Lawhorn directly at (903) 525-0906.
