After regular Meals on Wheels service was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sheriff Bryan Murphy and County Clerk Sherrie Riebel sprung into action.
Already worried that the program might be suspended, the two had prepared a back-up plan in its stead.
In order to reduce risk to current Meals on Wheels volunteers, many of whom are elderly, the Sheriff’s Department, Hope Unlimited and Humboldt Police Department stepped in to cover the delivery routes.
“We know we don’t want to put those volunteers at risk,” Murphy explained. “We’re just going to absorb that risk and go on.”
The route through north and south Iola will be covered by the Sheriff’s Office.
The route through Gas, LaHarpe and Moran will be covered by Hope Unlimited.
The route through Humboldt will be covered by the Humboldt Police Department, though Monday was fielded by undersheriff Roy Smith.
The program typically delivers residents about 70 to 80 meals per week, and is coordinated by the county clerk’s office.
Meals on Wheels delivers around 19,000 meals during a regular year.
ON MONDAY, the Register rode along with Sheriff Murphy to homes on the north Iola route.
Clad in a facemask and gloves, Murphy hand-delivered meals to around 10 homes. Residents were eager to see him, thanking him for the service.
The meal materials included white bread, shaved ham, cheese, apples and oranges, milk and juice.
When asked whether, after 29 years in law enforcement, he had ever had to fill a role quite like this one, Murphy said “nothing to this magnitude … it’s very unique.”
Others from the Sheriff’s Office said they were greeted warmly by residents as well, including Doug Campbell — who was elected Sheriff of Woodson County Monday night by a Republican precinct committee.
“Everybody appreciated it,” he said. “Everybody liked it.”
One resident that Murphy visited was retired teacher and principal Joe Hess, who has lived in Iola with his wife Jeanette for 20 years.
He’s recently completed an autobiography, which he wrote for his daughter and other children.
After working as an educator most of his life near Wichita, Hess found himself visiting the Iola Senior Center, where he met Jeanette.
“One thing led to another, and the Lord put his finger in the middle of it, and put us together,” he said.
