Boone County businesses, faith groups and sports teams can sign up for volunteer days assembling snack boxes, packing pet food and creating birthday bags for homebound seniors through Meals on Wheels of Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
The nonprofit announced the group volunteer program in a sponsored post on LINK nky published Aug. 11, describing the days as team-building experiences that let organizations give back while strengthening workplace collaboration. The program is open to groups of any size across the nonprofit's 13-county service area, which includes eight Kentucky counties.
Meals on Wheels serves nearly 11,000 seniors annually and relies on more than 5,000 volunteers to keep operations running. More than 4,000 meals leave the production facility every weekday.
Groups can choose from several activities:
- Assembling snack boxes of shelf-stable food (crackers, fruit, juice boxes) that accompany every weekly home-delivered meal. This is the organization's biggest need. Volunteers assembled 260,000 boxes in 2025.
- Packing pet food for seniors' cats and dogs enrolled in the pet support program. One hundred percent of the nonprofit's pet food is packed by volunteers.
- Organizing meals for distribution from the production facility.
- Creating hand-decorated birthday bags containing a card, a snack, a handheld game and hygiene products.
- Hosting a hygiene product drive at your workplace.
- Supporting activities at the OTR Senior Center in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood or at senior residence partners.
Birthday bags can be assembled at a group's own office, making them a portable option for Boone County workplaces that can't travel to the Cincinnati headquarters at 2091 Radcliff Drive.
The organization said it accommodates flexible scheduling and virtual volunteer opportunities.
Boone County residents who want to find out whether they or a family member qualify for home-delivered meals, pet support or social services can contact the Northern Kentucky Area Development District at 859-283-1885.
To schedule a group volunteer day, contact volunteer manager Tammy Lawson Hitchcock at 513-244-0668 or [email protected]. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Upcoming community events
- Boone County Annual Senior Picnic: Wednesday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Boone County Fairgrounds. Tickets are $6 per person and went on sale Monday, Aug. 3, at Florence and Union government buildings.
