HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – After being put on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Meals on Wheels of Horry County has still found a way to continue getting meals out to the community.
One stage four cancer survivor and volunteer is helping to send out over 13,000 meals in the last week and a half alone to the community.
“We went from making 100 meals a day, roughly five to six hundred meals a week, to making 900 meals a day,” said director Michael Tyler.
Meals on Wheels cook Kerry Straley has volunteered for a decade. This, after beating stage four Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“Giving back, it sometimes overwhelms me and I will literally burst into tears just thinking about the small, insignificant part that I play in bringing the word of Christ, actually doing what Christ instructed us to do,” said Straley.
His wife, Marlene, also a volunteer, says it’s a blessing.
“This man was stage 4. Stage 4, a lot of times you don’t come back from that, and so, I think, we think, we still think that it was, you know, by the grace of God that he did,” she said.
For the director and other volunteers, they’re living in an RV donated by Dead Dog Saloon’s managing partners to make sure other volunteers like the Straley’s can go home to lessen the risk of the virus spreading.
They’re partnering with local churches to help deliver the over 16,000 meals a month and counting. If someone is in need of a meal, the website https://www.youarelovedcrisisresponse.com/ allows them to choose a church closest to them to receive assistance. There is also a women’s support tab that allows mothers to get assistance with things like diapers, wipes and formula.
“It shows the community that just because we’re not gathering at the church, Jesus is still very much alive and he’s willing to come out of the doors and into the dark,” said Tyler.
