Early in the pandemic, Massanutten Resort began a free food delivery program to area families in need. The program continues to this day.
“We recognized early on that there were area residents who could use a hand,” said Mark Litz, who oversees food and beverage services at the resort. “We had few guests, plenty of talented staff, and lots of supplies. We saw it as a way to use existing resources to help the community.”
Meals are delivered to people in the Massanutten area with health or other challenges that make it more difficult for them to access the stores. Most are elderly, but there are also some younger recipients with mobility issues.
Meals are delivered once per week. Each delivery contains the equivalent of four fully-prepared meals. “The majority of people we deliver to live alone,” Litz said, “so that’s four meals for them.”
Litz said that although a typical week’s menu choice originally involved tried-and-trues like pasta or meatloaf, with dessert and a loaf of fresh-baked bread, the culinary staff likes to mix things up and recipients appreciate that. “I use my 80-year-old father as a guinea pig,” he said. “We recently did an enchilada casserole, and he loved it. Another time, it was beans and franks – we have a really good provider of local beef hot dogs, and our staff came up with the idea. I thought it might bomb, but Dad loved it and everyone else did too. I’ve learned that what I might think might be wrong might actually be exactly right.”
There’s currently a waitlist to join the program, but the resort adds more recipients as other recipients drop off the list.
The resort also delivers 100 loaves of home-made bread weekly to the Elkton Area United Services (EAUS) food bank. Deliveries were temporarily suspended recently due to renovations at EAUS but resumed on March 9. EAUS distributes half to clients in-house and provides the other half to another area food bank.
Although the food and bread are made by the culinary staff, delivery personnel are all volunteers. Some are Massanutten-area residents, and others are members of the Massanutten Resort/Great Eastern staff.
For more information on the program, contact community@massresort.com.
Leave a Reply