When delivery service and love meet

Johnny Millender turns right onto Southwest 27th Street. He is on his way to a Lawton neighborhood just south of Cameron University campus.

“It’s around 17 to 20 miles per route,” he says.

Millender is a volunteer at Lawton Mobile Meals. Every Tuesday morning, he delivers food to between 10 and 13 clients around Lawton.

“I try to meet them with a smile,” Millender says, while navigating around the neighborhood streets. “It works because it helps the people.”

Millender pulls up to a house and gets out. He walks to the door and rings the doorbell. A. man steps out and Millender haves a good laugh with him as he hands over a brown plastic bag with the prepared food.

“You’re not searched by the FBI, aren’t you?” Millender laughs after his client would rather not give his name for the newspaper. No big deal. The two shake hands and say good-bye. Until next Tuesday.

Next stop: Bellaire Apartments, just east of the Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport, in the south part of town.

“I usually start at 9:15 a.m., I don’t want to wake up anybody,” he says as he turns left onto Southwest Lee Boulevard. Typically, he needs three hours to complete his route. This doesn’t only include delivering food, but also spending some time with the recipients.

At Bellaire Apartments, he meets Frank Roach in his car and hands him his food.

“I really appreciate the volunteers, they are wonderful people,” Roach says, adding that just two weeks ago, he received a new fan.

Millender gets back in the car and drives back toward Southwest Lee Boulevard.

“Most of my clients have a disability,” he says, emphasizing that “most don’t look for a handout.”

One example: Juan A. Martinez-Punte. Pecans from his neighbor’s tree end up on his property, so he collects them and gives them to Millender so he can pass them on to others.

Recipients of Lawton Mobile Meals often try to give contributions themselves, according to Program Manager Belinda Anderson. Combined with support from the City of Lawton as well as other grants and private donations, Lawton Mobile Meals provides 50 clients with food Monday through Friday, prepared by Sodexo at Cameron University, and delivered by over 30 volunteer drivers.

One of them is Millender. Serving others runs through his family; his grandma helped in a soup kitchen, he recalls.

Millender served for 22 years in the Army and is a retired sergeant first class. He spent his last years on Fort Sill and settled in Lawton with his family after his retirement in 1999. Since then, he’s been involved in his church, and for two years now, with Lawton Mobile Meals.

“I like seeing people smile,” he says. “I like putting a smile on their faces. It makes me feel better.”

Lawton Mobile Meals has been around since the early 1960s, according to Anderson. It is designed to serve people who have severe difficulties preparing meals for themselves.

“We do an assessment over the phone,” Anderson explains. Some of the requirements include an age over 60, and for those under 60, a letter from a doctor stating the condition is necessary.

“Our clients are home-bound and unable to prepare meals for themselves,” Anderson said.

Anderson often calls recipients and checks in with them.

“It’s important to check on their well-being, and pray with them and their caregivers,” she says.

For Anderson, working at Lawton Mobile Meals is a dream job, and she’s been doing it for nine years.

“I love doing it. God put me in this job,” she says. “It’s really a blessing. We can help a lot of people.”

Donations can be made to Lawton Mobile Meals, 2800 W. Gore. Prospective recipients can call (580) 357-5396 for more information.