Meals on Wheels ride-alongs show state representative, others nonprofit's impact on community

Mar. 21—State Rep. Natalie Figueroa was all smiles Wednesday morning as she, along with Meals on Wheels New Mexico staff members Madison Kalvert and Robin Morrison, loaded the back of a car with several meals set for delivery.

Figueroa was invited by Meals on Wheels to ride along on a delivery route and took the group up on its offer.

"I'd heard about Meals on Wheels for years and I know people who are served, but I had never seen the inside of it, how it's put together and I wanted to," she said.

The Albuquerque Democrat was the latest elected state official to join Meals on Wheels New Mexico during the nonprofit's Community Champions Week. Earlier in the week, Democratic state Reps. Charlotte Little and Marian Matthews, both of Albuquerque, spent Monday and Tuesday delivering meals to those in need.

On Wednesday, Figueroa delivered meals to 10 people, including Anthony Sharp, who has come to rely on Meals on Wheels after a turbulent past few years.

It started in 2022, when Sharp and his son left their home in El Paso for a doctor's appointment.

"It was an old house and we had extension cords running everywhere," Sharp said. "There was a short in the kitchen and it burnt down our house."

Sharp lost his two dogs and everything he owned. The father and son spent the next year homeless. In February 2023, Sharp moved to Albuquerque to pursue a job opportunity. However, during this period, Sharp began drinking heavily.

"I drank my job away and ended up back (homeless)," he said. "I figured it was God's way to say, 'If you like being homeless so much, let's try it again.'"

In August 2023, he was let go from his job. Sharp said he decided to stop drinking and give his life to religion. He is now seven months sober and he and his son are living in an apartment — their first real home in two years.

The meals he gets from Meals on Wheels New Mexico are for his now 16-year-old son, who struggles with bipolar and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, Sharp said. The meals serve as his son's dinners, as Sharp mostly works nights at Golden Corral.

"(The meals) mean a lot, I don't have a lot of time to cook," Sharp said.

It is the interactions with people such as Sharp that kept Morrison coming back for the past decade. She started with Meals on Wheels New Mexico as a volunteer, before she quickly realized this was a place she wanted to stay .

"The people that we take care of, the void we fill — there's just so many people out there that have food insecurity. It's cemented how important our work is," Morrison said.

During her time with Meals on Wheels, Morrison spent time working with the kitchen staff and is now the organization's annual fund manager. She still makes time to attend ride-alongs whenever possible and said she encourages her staff to go on them as well.

"To actually see the joy on people's faces when their food was delivered and how grateful they are for what we're doing for them, I think it really changed the culture," she said of the staff.

Following the completion of Wednesday's deliveries, Morrison took Figueroa on a tour of Meals on Wheels New Mexico's kitchen, showing the representative how the staff cleans and prepares for the next day's meals and deliveries.

The tour, coupled with the experience of meeting and delivering food to people, is something Figueroa said will stick with her for a long time to come.

"It reminds me of how kind people are, and volunteering always reminds me of how welcoming the community is," she said.

Gino Gutierrez is the good news reporter with the Albuquerque Journal. If you have an idea for a good news story, you can contact him at goodnews@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3940.