An Ottawa organization that delivers hot food to seniors and others is worried it will not be able to meet the increasing demand with a falling number of volunteers.  Meals on Wheels says it is reaching a crisis point as more baby boomers choose travel and leisure over volunteerism.

Eiko Black is a dying breed; a baby boomer, recently retired, who has committed every Tuesday to delivering meals to a variety of folks in need in Ottawa’s east end.

She calls it her civic responsibility.

‘I have time now,’ says Black, who used to work for National Defence, ‘I can do it to help out and it's part of our responsibility as a citizen.’

It is what many organizations dependent on volunteers had hoped for: a plethora of baby boomers with time on their hands who would be willing to give back.  That hasn't happened.

‘It's not that regular ‘count on me every Thursday and I’ll be there to deliver meals,’ says Renée Ladouceur-Beauchamp, the Executive Director of the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre that offers Meals on Wheels as one of its many programs, ‘It’s more like ‘I've got free time to lend a hand this week and next week for a food drive or something like that but I don’t want to commit because I go south.’

As the number of volunteers has fallen, the number of clients like Juliette Gagnon has dramatically risen. Gagnon depends on the meals to help her manage since a rough bout with an illness.

‘It means a lot to me,’ she says, because when I was sick, I was so sick that I didn't want to eat or sleep.’

Last year, the Meals on Wheels in Eastern Ottawa delivered 750 meals to clients like Gagnon.  This year, that number has jumped to its highest yet, at 1003 meals.  That represents a 33% increase in just one year.

Annie Parisien is the coordinator for Meals on Wheels for Eastern Ottawa, ‘I wouldn't say it’s a crisis, but we're getting there.  The clients are increasing and I have to serve more meals and with the same number of volunteers,’ sometimes, she adds, even delivering the meals herself.

It's not just Ottawa experiencing this issue. It is happening across the country.  And for the first time, it's forcing Meals on Wheels in Eastern Ottawa to consider a wait list, which Ladouceur-Beachamp calls completely unacceptable.

‘If you need food, you can't wait until we have a vacancy on a route so we are worried.’

Eiko Black is worried, too and figures in 20 or 30 years, she may need this service. She’s hoping what goes around, comes around.

‘See you next week,’ she says as she drops off the meal to Juliette Gagnon, and heads off to see another client.

Meals on Wheels say their crunch time is winter, which is fast approaching.  More elderly people are shut in, unable to get out for food and those baby boomers turn in to snowbirds, heading out of the city and down south to warmer climates.