Jennifer Garrett is one of our doubly-amazing volunteers because she works double duty— volunteering in both our Meals On Wheels and Westside Friends programs.
Every Wednesday mornings, Jennifer is here bright and early to help pack meals that go out for delivery with our Meals On Wheels volunteers. After she helps pack the meals, Jennifer gets in her car and delivers meals to six to eight homes every week. “Having access to food is most important,” Jennifer says. “This is a small part of making that happen. For some folks, this weekly delivery may be their only interaction that week.”
In our outreach program, Westside Friends, Jennifer has been visiting with the same participant since she began in 2018. She really enjoys their weekly visits. They both enjoy cooking, so Jennifer will sometimes pick up items at the store for them to cook a meal together. They also often take walks to work off some of that good homemade food.
Jennifer grew up in Bellingham, which she says was a great place to grow up. She would hop on a bus with a nickel, and her mom didn’t have to worry because every bus ended up back at the bus station, so she literally couldn’t get lost! She graduated from the University of Washington in 1988. Today, her two passions are her cats and music. She’s a professional part-time cat-sitter and plays bass guitar, violin and piano. She and her partner have a music studio in their basement and enjoy music together.
Jennifer’s grandma had passed away the year before she began volunteering at the Senior Center. She feels that her volunteer time, especially with Westside Friends, has benefited her just as much as the people she helps. “It feels like such a small, easy thing for me… with huge rewards.”