EP011: When Passion Fuels Purpose, People Become A Priority!

A warm meal can keep someone alive, but a familiar knock at the door can keep them human. We sit down with David Linnell, Director of Meals on Wheels Diablo Region, to unpack what really happens when you deliver to homebound seniors: you reduce food insecurity, you ease loneliness and isolation, and you create a weekly safety net through relationship and simple awareness.

David shares the personal story that shaped his leadership. As a Desert Storm veteran, he traces a long road of health challenges including sleep apnea, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, eczema, and low testosterone, and how those struggles affected his confidence and daily life. Then we shift to what helped him rebuild: consistent training, a supportive CrossFit community, and the mindset that movement is medicine. His journey from 285 pounds to a stronger, more capable life is a reminder that small steps, done repeatedly, add up.

We also get practical about how Meals on Wheels is expanding and innovating, from serving more of the county to exploring new programs like a court companion service for seniors navigating scary situations. David explains why a future commissary kitchen could lower costs and help more nonprofits feed more people. If you’ve ever wondered how to volunteer, donate, or simply show up for your community, you’ll leave with a clear next step and a deeper respect for the people doing this work.

Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review so more people find the show. Who in your life could use a little more support this week?

Click here to learn more about Meals On Wheels and Volunteer Opportunities 

Transcript

Welcome And What To Expect

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Wake up, wake up, and listen up. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter Podcast with your hosts Doug Talmich and Ted Ania. Tune in as we dive into living your best life in the fourth quarter of your life. Hear from health and lifestyle experts, inspirational stories, learn simple steps to keep you motivated or to help get you started. Finally, join us as we coach others live on air who want to begin a healthy lifestyle or just might be stuck and need a breakthrough. Remember, it's never too late to decide to be great. Momentum keeps you motivated, so take a deep breath. Lean in and let's go. Welcome to the fourth quarter podcast. We have another outstanding and amazing week for you. We have an awesome guest. I am very excited to introduce this gentleman. Actually, Ted is going to introduce this gentleman because Ted was the first one who met this man and worked and worked with him or for the organization and got to know him. And this guy I got to meet personally last year at Ted's birthday challenge just popped up out of nowhere and did several laps and push-ups with us and shared some amazing stories, which we will probably get to throughout the podcast. So you're gonna want to lean in and listen up because you're not just gonna hear about some fourth quarter stuff. You're gonna hear about navigating disease, navigating sickness and health and rising to the top and being committed through the process. Some life stories might get mixed in there. We'll see. We we really don't know where this is gonna go, but I know it's gonna be interesting, and I know I'm excited about it. So hey, that means you got to be excited too. I'm just kidding. But Ted, why don't you tell us uh who's coming up? What's coming up, man? I can't keep up with you sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Well, yeah, we've got some guests coming up in the near future. As we mentioned last week, Dr. Dees and Dr. Locks from Canyon Chiropractic in San Ramon are going to be with us, and they are going to be speaking about how important it is to keep your body structure, your bones, everything in in alignment as we get older and the importance of that. And these are actually the people who a couple of years ago I went to see and helped me with actually a spinal decompression therapy that has changed everything that I can do physically. Yeah. So looking forward to speaking with them. And we also have Tracy Brown, who is a woman that I actually went to college with many years ago. She is the co-owner of MedWiss Insurance, and they are a company that helps people that are just getting ready to turn 65, how to navigate, getting set up with Medicare. She'll be on, and I'm sure we'll also dig into her uh health journey and where that is, and she'll speak to that as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

That's awesome. So before you move on to this, introducing our guest, I totally forgot to mention, and I didn't mean to, but last week's episode, Patty Moon, the nutritionist, was outstanding, getting a lot of great feedback from there. The title of that episode was Drowning in Information and Starving for Wisdom. And man, she touched on that big time just on all the stuff you see on Instagram and social media. You know, don't eat this, try this, stay away from bananas, eat bananas. Like you don't know which way to turn anymore. Like there's so much information out there. Her story and her and her guidance and her wisdom on our show last week was really cool about keeping it simple. And we got to get back to our roots, brother. We got to get back. So thank you, Patty, for listening in. We appreciate having you on. We're getting a lot of great feedback on that episode. And Ted, I'll swing it back around, man, and if you want to add anything.

Why Ted Volunteers For Meals

Meet David Linnell And The Mission

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Well, it's amazing. Yeah, going back to Patty is an I've actually made some changes to some of the things that I'm doing nutritionally, and I've already starting to see a difference. I actually started, we recorded on Monday last week and put them into effect, and uh, it's amazing. So there was a lot of information there that can be very helpful. Very cool. But on to our guests this week. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine told me that he after he retired, he got involved up in the Sacramento area with Meals on Wheels as volunteering delivering meals to people up there. I I liked hearing about that. He was very passionate about it. And so I looked into it and started volunteering for meals on wheels about two years ago. And I go out once a week and deliver meals to those that can't get out and do things, get get meals on their own, or just need some nutritious meals delivered to them. In doing so, because I was passionate about it, last year's birthday challenge, I decided to raise money for meals on wheels. Thanks to friends and people out there, we about tripled my my goal for the year, which was great. When we did my birthday challenge, David, our guest this week, showed up unannounced, didn't know he was coming, didn't know who he was, and just walked up to Doug and I and introduced himself to us and spent a couple of hours with him. Just had a great conversation, and it was just great having him support us in what we were doing. So, without further ado, we'd like to introduce David Linnell, the director of Meals on Wheels, Diablo Region. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Well, thank you guys, and I really appreciate all your volunteerism for the agency and helping our seniors in the county Ted. That's that's and and also your fundraiser for your birthday challenge. Those are amazing things, and they really help.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

You know, he's raising his goals this year, David. We're he's raising his goals and his standards this year, so uh to be to be of more support. You know, you know, we push them game together.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

We we had a guest on a few weeks back. Her name was Betty. She's 82 years old and just living the fourth quarter like we'd all like to do it, just still out hiking and Pilates and weightlifting and you know, more things than we can we could keep up with. Yeah, and one of her comments in the episode was as she got older, she's doing more, not less. So, with that in mind, this year's birthday challenge is about more, so it's gonna be about walking more miles, doing more push-ups, raising more money, getting more people out to join us. It's all gonna be about more. Wow, more push-ups. Okay. We'll see. I still got some work to do on that as well. But David, for someone who's who's hearing about meals on wheels for the first time, how how would you describe the mission to someone who they've never heard of?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

That's a great question. So the mission really is as we age and seniors find themselves potentially losing a loved one or losing their physical or mental abilities, they can find themselves homebound. What I mean by that is their inability to get out into the world, do their own shopping, maybe go to the dentist or a doctor, and they're sort of stuck in home. And because they're at home, now they're isolated, which can cause a lot of mental health issues on top of uh food insecurity. So, as a mission of ours, our primary mission is to make sure that we get food to those clients or those folks so that they're not food insecure or try and do as much of it as we can. And while we're at it, since we do cross the threshold into their homes at times, we like to develop relationships with them, someone they can count on, in our case with this agency once a week to receive meals from a friendly face and a and someone that that's familiar to them. Ted, as you know, as a volunteer driver, our goal is to really have the same driver delivered to the same clients because you formulate that uh relationship. And that relationship is key to future health uh or future acknowledgement of a potential additional need. It's quite common for a driver for us to report back that a client that they deliver to on a regular basis seems out of sorts, and we can reach out and potentially do some referral, get them the help that they may need. But it really comes from the awareness of the driver that's delivering to the meals each day that keeps them safe and healthy and fed in their homes. So that's what our primary mission is. We have other other services where we do safety, safety checks, and we'll install grab bars for those who have fall risks. And we have friendly callers, which is separate from the meal program, but it does help with some of that isolation and loneliness as we age.

Beyond Food: Connection And Safety

SPEAKER_01 9:16

I I think that's important that you mention that because the name itself, Meals on Wheels, you know, obviously that is the focus, but there is so much more. There are also things that Meals on Wheels does that are just amazing, like a birthday card. Sometimes that's the only card they're going to get. And it's amazing how they brighten up when you walk in, or at times we'll deliver flowers. I think we did it at Easter or different different holidays. And I believe you have children's groups that are doing little things. They make make little things that we deliver with it. It just brightens up their day.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Yeah, really, it's it's so true, Ted. So one of the things that we did, it was a it was a major initiative for us is to make a placemat for every single client to be delivered with their Thanksgiving meal. So we would reach out to the elementary schools, and the teachers would have the students to make, you know, with kid art, which all all grandparents love, kid art formatted placemats. And it's amazing because you go into some of these homes, the clients put it on their refrigerators if they got it from their child from when they were a kid, when they were young, they don't use it or they frame it and put it on the wall. It's uh it's just so amazing how they embrace the idea that we're giving them something that was made by a child. And then one of the things that I'd like to start to do with Meals on Wheels Diablo is to get families to volunteer to deliver that Thanksgiving week so we could get multiple families throughout the county to deliver to five or six clients on Thanksgiving Day and deliver a hot Thanksgiving meal. That's something I'm gonna be working on this next year. Wow. It makes a huge impact to our our agency to sort of spread the word of what our mission is, and it also allows the younger generation to see elderly folks that are just so gracious to receive the meal on the company. And I think it's really it brings the two generations together.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

You know, I just I just saw something the other day on a TV show said every old person knows what it means to be young, but not all young people know what it means to be old. That's so true.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

That is very true. That's good. Ted comes up, that's a Tedism, ladies and gentlemen. He's got a million of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

You know, and and that's to your point, though, just that connection between the generations is is so important. Not to make it about me, but just the birthday challenges. One of the the keys to that is not only having my daughters and sons-in-law out there, but also my grandkids to see that you can be healthy as you get older and be active and doing things. So it's great to connect those generations. I think that's something that in this day and age, maybe we've fallen away from a little more than when we were growing up and you had multi-generational families living together. I think I think that's very important.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Anymore in our country because it requires two incomes. We don't have that stay-home parent who could take care of their parents in the home because it requires two incomes today to survive. It's much more difficult to bring a your mom back into your home and to have her be sort of supervised and cared for. It's it's it's much harder. So they end up in long-term care assisted living a lot quicker. Right. You have a pretty pretty lengthy experience working in long-term care and assisted living prior to coming to Meals on Wheels.

David’s Health Story And Desert Storm

SPEAKER_02 12:59

There's so much value in what you guys are saying, and and the the name Meals on Wheels can be so deceiving. You can miss so much. Like meals on, you know, you don't just deliver meals. I mean, you guys are literally handing out hope. You guys are leaving impressions of love through all these little acts in between, you know, getting the meal to the person from the plate from point A to point B, and then even afterwards. Uh, and then David, you were just talking about getting families involved during the during the Thanksgiving week and all that. And, you know, obviously there's growth going on and and things happening. And what I get really passionate about, David, when when we invited you to be on was I always like to know what goes on or what what's the who's the man behind the mission for Diablo Region on Meals on Wheels? And I'd like to just kind of segue into getting our listeners to know you a little bit if that's okay with you. That's fine with me. Yeah, well, well, I had the privilege and honor of reconnecting with you, David. Uh, for I met you at Ted's birthday challenge for the first time, and I couldn't believe how open you were. And some of the things you were sharing with me, it just left a huge impression on my heart for that whole year. And then to know that you were coming back, and I asked Ted, I said, Hey, would it be cool if I reached out to David and just reconnected? There's some things I remember he said. I just want to recall them and get clear on. And you were very open, and we connected last week. And I had no idea about this other stuff, David. That's some of the health stuff you're dealing with. And we'll tie this in and how it all fits and who this man is behind the mission. But some of the things you shared with me, which you have given me permission to go ahead and share freely, is that you know, you you deal with sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease, borderline diabetes. Uh, you stopped producing testosterone in your mid-30s. And another cool one is you are also a desert storm vet. Thank you for your service, sir. Thank you for your service. But tell me a little bit about you know some of these health issues that are going on, because I also know the man that I met last year, he looked fit, sounded fit, never made an excuse. And even talking with you last week, like you don't have that mindset of, you know, oh, I feel this or I feel that. I mean, you're always moving forward. At least that's my impression. That's the impression you have left with me. So if you don't mind sharing a little bit about any one of the health issues or or or all of them with our listeners and how that affects your daily life. And what do you do about it? How do you keep yourself moving forward?

CrossFit As Movement And Medicine

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Well, I guess to start off with I am a Desert Storm veteran. I've been seeking medical assistance from the VA recently. Turns out those conditions that I have are all tied back to my service at Desert Storm from the oil fires, the fire pits. We were inoculated with anthrax, and we were also had to take a low dosage of nerve agent prior to the war starting. And all of these things are untested on humans and they have a major effect, can have a major effect on your health. So all of the things that I mentioned that I'm going through are attributed or were I want to say cause, but they were brought on by Desert Storm or exasperated by Desert Storm, including eczema, which is which is probably the most significant one for Desert Storm veterans, which is the skin rash that doesn't go away and is very painful and can leave scars. That was back in 92. I was, I believe, 26, 27 years old at the time. As I started to age, I found myself very lethargic. I always had aches and pains, difficult to get out of bed, no sex drive for someone who's in their late 20s, which was difficult to think about. And it turned out when I went to finally went to a urologist, they did uh test on my my what they he called low T, which I had no idea what that was at the time. So I did my testosterone level tested, and it turned out that I was at this testosterone level of a 90-year-old, which can major effects on your health. It can create one of the number ones is low muscle mass and low bone density. To top it off, I was starting to experience, you know, my wife at the time was complaining that I snored a lot and that I would wake up gasping for air. So that turned into sleep apnea in my early 30s. And then hypertension, high blood pressure, which then we don't know whether because of the sleep apnea or the hypertension, high blood pressure, or the other way around was causing major issues with my kidneys. So I went into kidney failure, not failure completely, but I should say kidney. I'm I'm at stage three. So my filtration rate is below 60, between 30 and 60, which which means I really have to be careful with what I eat, make sure that I stay away from potassium and phosphorus and and I get good exercise, drink lots of water and so on. Yeah, so I've I've been sort of dealing with these health issues for for quite some time. And when I got to be about 40, 45 years old, I was tremendously overweight because I wasn't physically fit, and that had to change. So I started to look for ways to get into the gym. I hated going to the 24-hour fitness because I don't get motivated by myself. I have to be in an environment where I'm around a lot of people. So then I started looking for workouts that I could do with others, and that led me to cross it. Okay. I think it's been life-saving, really, truly. It has. One, you you clearly get in a lot better shape, but you're around people that really support you. Right. Um, that's what you'll find in what they call the term the box, which means your gym, the one you belong to, that you are around your your peaks, so to speak, and they're all inspiring you, and you inspire them. So it's a really good, it's like a really good environment. I try to work out five days a week. I coach twice a week. You coach CrossFit twice a week? Yeah, I coach CrossFit. Oh wow. I think about five years ago as we were starting to come out of COVID. My original gym that I belonged to closed as a result of COVID. And then the members, a lot of the key members, decided they wanted to open up to another gym, and then we lacked coaches. So then I went and went through the coach's training to try and get that gym jump started. Right. And I've been coaching ever since. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

You know, there's a phrase we like to use here, uh, movement is medicine. Yes, absolutely. And listen listening to your past, you know, from your mid-20s to your 40s when you discovered CrossFit, I'm sure I just have to assume, and I don't like to assume that that came along with a lot of mental and and uh emotional garbage that you had to unpack and go through. When you got into CrossFit and getting, you know, and knowing that movement is medicine. Did you start feeling a healing process happen through that physical activity? Or you need to break that, unpack that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Oh wow. So I I have to tell you that, and this is why I coach and why I like to coach beginners. I'm sort of known for if you're brand new to CrossFit, go get coached by David. There are certain skills that you learn in CrossFit. Some of them I still can't do, which is fine. They don't need to. Not at 60 years old. I don't. I'm not going to compete any day soon. I just want to be healthier. But you know, these guys that do it very well can do what's called a muscle up. You know what a muscle up is, where you can just grab uh grab the bar on the rig for that's above your head and you can pull yourself up and over it.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

You know, you can do it with a kipping motion or just do it strict and just pull yourself all the way up to where you're pressing out at the top. I can't do that. And most people in their 40s, 50s really struggle with it. But if you're younger and you do the training, you can manage it. You can do it. But the very first time I just hung from the bar hurt so bad. Wow. Just grab a hold and do a dead hang for 10 seconds. Or to try and do another one that that was that's really hard on the muscle fibers is to do ring dips. So you're holding yourself up in the rings and then drop down into your shoulders and then push yourself back up. Wow. That's a really challenging movement as well. Yeah. Just to even jump into the rings and hold, I couldn't do. And I was absolutely terrified to continue to even try in front of a group of people. But you know, they cheer you on and you sort of muscle through it, and you keep showing up, and before long you're able to do it. But I remember looking at a 16-inch box that I would have to jump on. Now that's just a little taller than your average step, and I was mortified to jump on it. Really? Probably within six months I was able to jump onto a 24-inch box. And now this morning we did step ups, weighted step-ups, which is today I did holding on to a 65-pound dumbbell. Stepping up onto a 24-inch box for seven sets of 10.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Wait, so wait, hold on, pause for one second. Did you just say you hold on to a 65-pound dumbbell and you step up on a 24 inch Box and you just did that this morning. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Wow. That's impressive. In between, and for today's workout, in between each one of those sets, you do 35 double unders. Okay. Double jump on a with a jump probe. So you do double unders, then you do step ups. You do double unders, you do step-ups. So it's 35 and 10, 35 and 10 for seven rounds.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Real quick, uh it's just amazing, just a couple points is that one is, and this is what we've talked about on the podcast, is you found something that you love to do. Yes. And that's that's what we try and encourage anyone that that we're speaking with. You have to find something that you want to do, that you enjoy doing, and that will drive you to continue to do it and be consistent with it. And the other one is just starting small and staying consistent with what you're doing to your point with with the jump ups. And you know, you just kept doing that, and over time it increased. We're we're actually coaching some people on the podcast. We started them with very small goals. Our our intention was to continue to move them up, and it's turning out they're moving themselves up as they go and get stronger and stay consistent with it. So just another you're proving that again that that that theory works.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yes, validating and confirming the process, simple steps.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

You know, when new athletes come in and they're they're they have no idea what how to do a clean or or any one of the other, you know, lifting movements, and they feel awkward and embarrassed. And it's like, you know, just hang in there, I'll show you how to do the movement pattern. We'll do it with even a PVC pipe versus a weighted barbell without weights, and you just go through the movement pattern. Well, this is where we're gonna start. Right. And just keep coming. That's the best advice I can tell you is just keep coming, keep trying. It will come.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

David, let me go back to the second part of my question was movement being medicine. Obviously, you've become much stronger. You went from barely being able to hang on to like said stepping up on a 24 box, 24-inch box with a 65-pound dumbbell this morning. And you're you're about to turn. By the way, David's gonna be 60 years old on April 14th. Congratulations, David. Happy uh birthday, pre-birthday. Thank you. Yes, and so he's a perfect candidate to be on this show right now because he's just gonna be entering his fourth quarter. At the rate you're going, man, it's gonna be an awesome fourth quarter. But let's get to the emotional part and the mental part.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

I think when I when I started, I really felt, you know, I always had such a good career, so that that was never an issue because I always had a good job and I was feeling like I'm serving a purpose. But when it came to my own physical abilities, I had no confidence because I was overweight and out of shape. And my doctor at that time was telling me if you don't start to lose some of the weight, you don't start to get more physical, you you're not gonna be around much longer.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

And real quick, what you're saying overweight. I because you look you look fit now. Well, how much overweight were you? How much weight did you lost? 285 was probably my heaviest.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

285. 285. Yeah. Wow. And I and I weighed myself this morning. I weigh 215 right now. Wow. Wow. Significant. And I would say that there's also the difference of muscle mass as opposed to overall fat percentage. Fat percentage when I was sort of morbidly obese is what this the real definition. And not very physically fit. I didn't have the same muscle mass I have today. And so you know you're transitioning some of that weight into muscle too. So it's it's it's a bigger difference than the amount you're looking at in terms of pounds of just the difference between the two.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

You know, Ted, you mentioned earlier that, you know, what you noticed about David is you know, finding something he loved to do. But here's the thing: here's what I'm picking up. This is from Doug, Coach D. Fresh's perspective, right? Is that David, you made it very clear you didn't want to be in the 24-hour fitness thing. And I think maybe you didn't even want to be in a gym, because what I'm learning about you more and more, the more I listen to you, is that you love to help people. And when you found CrossFit, it wasn't so much maybe the exercise, again, my opinion. Sure, that helps and that keeps you moving. But then you're a coach now in CrossFit. And I I think that's that's what keeps you showing up to the place is that your desire and your passion to serve others.

Keeping Seniors Home With Dignity

SPEAKER_00 26:27

I get so excited when I have a new athlete at a PR. Yeah. A personal desk you know, it's uh I think it's just amazing. And they get a lot of them in the beginning, so there's lots to cheer about. You know, you get so scared to jump on a box and then they finally do it. You know, and I and I and I go through all this confidence building and they finally get through the psychiatry or the psychological part of it, and they just do it and they land on it. You're like, you you want to you just want to yell to the sky because they you can tell what's going on inside their head how scared they are, and then they finally get past it. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah. And so I want to, I kind of want to just let's segue back to Meals on Wheels real quick because now that we've gotten to know the man behind the mission here for the Diablo region, uh, and thank you for sharing some really personal stuff with us, David, and your transparency. I'm sure there's people out there dealing with maybe one of your medical issues or half or maybe all of them, and feeling like I there's no hope. And man, you have given some hope today, brother. You have definitely given some hope today. So thank you for that. How does your past, all the things you've been through, mentally, emotionally, physically, how do you bring that into what you do now for meals on wheels? How is that a part of what you're doing on a day-to-day basis?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Oh, I think it it I think it's um you have to have the personality or the empathy. Just the notion of caring for other people. Right. Uh I think that that is the is one of the keys. I I think when you have struggles and you have someone that supports you through those struggles, you want to give back in return the same thing. If I was to share with you my first experience with meals on wheels, I was managing a uh large continuing care retirement center in Greeley, Colorado. This was back in mid-90s. And that particular kitchen at that facility made the meals for meals on wheels, the local meals on wheels. And I've always struggled with the idea of the residents or the seniors that come to assisted living in long-term care, that some of them come prematurely. That they're really, if they had someone that got them their meals and did a daily welfare check, they could still be living at home. Because that didn't exist in their world or their children or whoever it is that chose to make the decision to get them into a different level of care, it can be devastating to the individual. I can't tell you how many times I've had a new resident move into a long-term care or assisted living facility and they don't want to be there because it's not their home. Yeah. And they'll they'll turn to their family and say, This is not my home. Please take me home. I promise I'll be good. Oh my gosh. So when you see that from the perspective of someone that's at the facilities where they're coming, you tell your staff, we need to get a hold of that person. We need to sit down and eat with them. We need to know who they are. We have to become their extended family or we're going to lose them because they'll go into such deep depression. And unfortunately, what happens is they cry when their family members show up, begging to go back home. So the family stopped coming. Wow. So when you when you experienced this uh in that setting, you know, I first moved to California after I got married to Linda, uh, my second wife. When we moved to California, I worked for Dignity Health. And when I left Sequoia Hospital Dignity Health, I wanted to find a Meals on Wheels because I wanted to be a part of the solution that Meals on Wheels provided to those seniors by making sure they were fed, giving them a welfare check, you know, making sure their home is safe, that maybe we can develop some friendships or or dissolve some of their isolation issues and they can they can remain in their own home a lot longer and age with dignity. Man.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Yeah. I I know going, we went through that with my mom, and it is probably one of the most difficult things you encounter with your elderly parents, having to make those decisions. And we're, you know, we had to deal with it with my wife's family as well. Her parents, they actually had meals on wheels delivered in in Wisconsin at one point.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

I'd have to ask where in Wisconsin. What's that? I I as soon as you had said Wisconsin, I wanted to know where because I used to live in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Oh, a little town called Chilton. Okay. Not far from Appleton, that area. But you know, on uh another note, I mean, uh I how long have you been with Meals on Wheels, the director there?

SPEAKER_00 31:09

I've been the director with uh Diablo region for I guess a year and three quarters. It's coming up on two years this July. Okay. And then I was with Meals on Wheels San Francisco for just under nine years.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Oh, that's right. We we talked about that last year. I remember that. You've got a lot of real positive things going on in the Diablo region right now. I know there's been some expansion and things. Why don't you talk about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Uh, sure. So one of the things that is very recent to us is we are now serving the west part of the county. There was another agency that was doing that, and then we were awarded the contract. So we started that on February 2nd, and that added another 600 clients to our agency, and that provided to those 600 clients our other services. So they they benefit from that perspective. We just recently moved into our new headquarters in the past uh three weeks. So we moved in about the 9th of April into a new location on the shadows of Walnut Creek.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

This is gonna be a location where I really think that the agency is gonna thrive. We have the office space, cubicle space, and enough to grow for a little while. It's gonna give us an opportunity to do some things in the back parking lot of that location, uh, which I can touch on as a new program that we're gonna try and work through. One of our new programs that we're getting ready to launch in the next month or so is gonna be a court companion. We're working with senior legal services to use our volunteers to take seniors to court to sit with them, make sure they make it into the right courtrooms at the right time. They can't give legal advice, but they're just really a companion in the court setting because a lot of seniors go through some level of abuse at times, whether it's a restraining order type situation or whatever the case may be. And these can be very scary times for seniors, especially if they're homebound and need someone to take them. So we're working on that court companion program. One of the other things that's uh we're working on is our agency does not prepare its own food. We do not have a kitchen. We purchase our food from an organization called Trio. They're a wonderful organization. I worked with Shrio in San Francisco for a period of time, so I know all of the folks over there. So there's a feasibility study that's happening right now to see what the overall need in the county is for nonprofits for meal production, especially packaged items. When the feasibility study is done, it will tell us whether we should or should not have a kitchen of our own. And if we did, what size should it be? And could we get to the end of a capital campaign to build it? Wow. It's starting to turn out that because the feasibility study's been in the work since October. And it's turning out that yes, we should have our own kitchen and we should probably find a large partner so that we can go through the capital campaign together. And that partner is going to be the Meals on Wheels in San Leandro for Alamia County. So we're going to try and bring the two counties together for one large kitchen to produce these, uh produce the food for both agencies as well as other nonprofits that may need packaged items. And it doesn't matter what age. So conceptually, the best way to sort of understand what we're trying to accomplish with this commissary kitchen, I always like to use a piece of equipment in San Francisco as a reference point so people kind of understand what we're trying to get to. And when we were in San Francisco, before we built a new kitchen, we were running our heads against this the ceiling in terms of production. And we were also running our heads in the ground for cost. We needed to find ways to save money. So, you know, with meals on wheels, typically everything is individually packaged. Our agency sends out bulk milk. Most most don't. They send individual cartons. But when it comes to like applesauce and yogurt, they're all individually packaged. And if you buy the name brand stuff, it can be pretty expensive. Right. So, as an example, applesauce, applesauce can run you. If you buy Mott's applesauce, is you know one of the common products that's out there. It's about 33 cents a unit. Wow. So when we were in San Francisco, we purchased a piece of equipment called a rotary cupper. That rotary cupper can take bulk applesauce that you can get from the food bank and put it in its cups, label it, date it, dull nine yards, and you can get the cost of the applesauce cups with the cup and labor down to about 11 cents. Wow. Wow. So when you have it at 11 cents, now you can sell it to other nonprofits that need packaged applesauce, and you can sell it for 22 cents. You'd have an 11 cent margin, and you save them 11 cents. Look at you go. They have more money to feed more people. I've got a margin on my end to help with my fundraising needs to try and bridge the gap and diversify the uh revenue that comes into the agency. So I like to use that piece of equipment as what we're trying to do with the commissary kitchen. Can we make the purchase can we make the products cheaper than buying them from a for-profit entity so all of us can benefit from those savings to serve more people? That's what the feasibility study is looking out to do.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

That's that's interesting, you know. Uh kind of a full circle moment with me delivering the meals now and delivering the milk with them. I actually I was in the dairy business. My father was a milk distributor, and when I was 16, I delivered milk to the location the trio is located that's still there. So that was what 56 years ago, 50, 53 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Dad, you're not that old.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

He didn't even do the magic so long. I I just I just remember uh my birthday's in the middle of July, and my father, I was going in to get my license, and he said, You better make sure you pass the test because you're starting to run a route the the week after your birthday, and one of them was deliveries to that that account. I had to drive over there and you were 16 at the time. I was 16. Wow, yeah, that's what I did. I actually started on a truck with my dad when in the summer when I was 11 to make money to go to Disneyland. I don't know if I was actually helping him or he was paying me for him to babysit me, but uh I was there every day on the truck with them all summer, and that went on for years. Kind of funny though that meals are still coming from that same same location.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

And they and they do a they do a great job over there.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

They do. Well, I love listening to the uh the purpose and the passion behind everything you're doing, David. How awesome was it to get to know the man behind this mission and your vision is huge and it could be a little scary, but man, you're with your experience and your and the things you've been through in your personal life, the the drive you have, the don't quit attitude just to keep showing up attitude, and and especially your love for serving others and helping others. I can't wait to see what continues to unfold while you're still there behind the realm. So thanks for showing up. And we're gonna move to the the portion of our show that where Ted shares a song that is gonna connect us to this episode. And then, David, after that, you and I will get to comment on the song.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Let me, I I I do have a couple quick questions for for David. One is you know, is what message would you like listeners to take away from this conversation? Great question. And then the other one would be just how can people get involved with volunteering if they're interested?

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Oh, okay. So my message to people listening, if you're not volunteering or participating and serving your community, you should get out and do it because it becomes very rewarding. It will be you will you will never regret serving and helping someone else and getting the gratification for making someone else's life better. I can attest to that. Oh, okay. If you start to do that at a small scale, you'll find yourself doing it for almost everything you do in life. Outstanding. So when we st when we reach back and grab the person behind them and pull and pull behind us and pull them forward, we're always gonna be in a better place. Love that. Oh, and to get involved. No, I don't have my contact information in front of me. Or I would say uh just reach out to you can find Meals on Wheels Diablo Region online and you can go to the link to see how you could help become a volunteer, or if you'd like to make a donation and help us continue to feed homebound seniors throughout the county.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Awesome. And we will put the the Meals on Wheels Diablo Region link in the show notes. So if anybody needs to or wants to or is just curious, just click the link you will find in the show notes and you will get in touch with them and they will answer all your questions. All right, Mr. Ted, you're gonna take us to the song.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

So I mean, this episode has been about aging and how we can support them nutritionally and empathetically. You know, we we never know what people are dealing with. There are certain parts of life that are inevitable, and I think the end being one of them, you know, it's it's kind of tough to talk about, but but that is a reality. And we we mentioned one of our guests, Betty, who seems to be kind of the guiding light to this podcast. During during the episode, she mentioned she made a comment kind of offhand, but she said she's too old to die young. Oh, yeah. We we thought was great. Yeah, so with that in mind, uh, you know, first of all, cheers to all those associated with meals on wheels. And here's to the opportunity to continue to grow older.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

If light is like a candle, then that must be the job.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Too old to die young. Thank you, Betty. That was awesome. Encouraged this Ted's creativity to play that song. And man, what a saying. I mean, I don't have much to say. I mean, it says it right there in the title, Too Old to Die Young. And yeah, listening to David and listening to past guests and recalling some of the messages and things they've left us with. You know, it just reminds me the importance of instituting healthy habits, small healthy habits for the long haul, so that one day I can look back and say, I'm too old to die young as well.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Excellent. Yeah. It was on Ted, and I really appreciate it. And Ed did say it all. You guys are amazing. This is a great podcast. I really enjoyed it. And uh, Ted, I need to know when when we're when we're gonna do the next challenge because I want to be there. It's there July 18th. July 18th.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Yep. July 18th. Bring bring the staff, bring the crew. Raising money for meals on wheels again, and we'll get that information out on the the podcast. And you know, it's all about more this year. So we're going to raise more, raise more money this year. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Yes. All right, David. Well, thank you so much for being on here. Is there anyone you want to give a shout out to or say hello to it?

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Oh, my staff. Oh, yeah, my staff. I have amazing staff. Yes. None of this gets accomplished without them, and they deserve a shout out. You know, we have got some amazing things happening, and we've we've accomplished a lot in the in the last six to eight months, and it's because of them. So a shout out to my entire Our staff. Very cool. Very cool. And the volunteers. Without them too, I want to forget the volunteers. But sometimes we we have a tendency to thank volunteers and thank leadership and we sort of leave the staff part out. But the staff are amazing and get this agency. I'm really blessed to have them.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

That's so cool. Yeah, that's the the staff is usually the backbone, and they are, you know, nobody they don't really get seen a lot because they're doing all the busy work in the behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

And then uh so Ted, are you gonna be at our our our I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. Ted, are you gonna be at our uh volunteer picnic?

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Yes. I think that's in a couple of weeks, the 17th. The 17th, right? Yeah, yep, I'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Okay, all right. We'll we'll uh share, or not share, we'll eat a burger together.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

All right, that sounds great. Yeah, don't share it. All right, Ted, anything you want to say to close this out? It's all you, Doug. All right, then I'm gonna do like I always do and say God bless and peace out. Yes, thank you, sir. If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe, follow, share an episode. If you want to leave a comment, go to the show notes. There's a text link there. We will receive an anonymous text from you with any comments or suggestions. Thanks again for tuning in, and most importantly, keep on coming back.