The Rangers of Fleet Air Reconnaissance (VQ) 2 recently reached out to Anacortes senior citizens by volunteering for the March for Meals spaghetti feed kickoff, one of Skagit County Meals on Wheels’ annual events.

Lending a hand at the Anacortes Senior Center, Sailors and spouses helped serve the seniors in attendance, acting as hosts, servers, and busing tables.

“We were able to help out the seniors who couldn’t stand in line by asking them what they needed and bringing them dinner,” said Electronics Technician 2nd Class Tom Yang.

They also swapped sea stories with the numerous World War II and Korean War veterans in attendance and bringing them up to date about the day to day life of a modern Sailor.

In addition to serving the seniors, VQ-2 brought a great new dynamic to the Senior Center. 

“The Anacortes seniors don’t get to interact with military personnel, so it was a good time for them to get to know us,” said Yeoman 2nd Class Tony Uribe.

Electronics Technician 1st Class Adrian Chastang and Yang were eager to explain to the senior veterans all the details of the Navy’s new tan and black enlisted service uniform.

“The older generation is unfamiliar with the Navy’s new uniforms,” said Chastang. “The recurring question of the evening was ‘what are these uniforms?”

Chastang and Uribe coordinated the volunteer effort because they noticed many of their command community relations events seldom occurred outside of the North Whidbey area. 

“We realized that most people in the command live in Anacortes, but the majority of volunteer efforts are spent in Oak Harbor,” said Chastang.. “So we looked at how best to reach out to Anacortes. Through the Anacortes Senior Center web site we found the opportunity to work with Meals on Wheels.” 

The volunteer event was organized by the Sailors living in the Anacortes area vice the normal structure of a command sponsored event.

Meals on Wheels delivers hot and prepared meals to seniors over the age of 60 who have difficulty leaving their homes unassisted or are otherwise unable to prepare their own meals.  The Meals on Wheels program has grown considerably in the last 30 years. Their goal is to end senior hunger by 2020.  To that end, the Skagit County Meals on Wheels program expects to serve 130,000 meals to over 2,500 seniors this year. 

For those interested in volunteering or more information about this program please contact the Skagit County Meals on Wheels directly at (360) 757-2545.