Some Fort Dodge residents who get hot lunches through the Meals on Wheels program may have been surprised recently to find their food delivered by some very youthful volunteers.

Those young delivery people are Fort Dodge Middle School students who eagerly volunteered for the job.

There are 16 students from Cindy Griggs’ classroom who are involved in Meals on Wheels. They are in grades five through eight.

The student team is part of a rotation with other Meals on Wheels volunteers. That means the students deliver during one week of an eight week cycle. When it’s their week to deliver, Griggs and a para-educator take six students in a school district van to Hy-Vee to pick up the food. Then they make their desiginated deliveries.

The students take turns being on the delivery runs so that they all can participate.

They have gone above and beyond just delivering food. They baked brownies and sugar cookies that they delivered during the Christmas season. They also made Christmas cards that were given to the people receiving meals.

The student participation evolved from Griggs’ own desire to volunteer with Meals on Wheels. She found out that Meals on Wheels delivers lunches, which would not work for her schedule. As a teacher, she is in school during the midday hours when the volunteers make their rounds. But she knew that her students love helping others, so she asked them how they would feel about delivering meals. The kids were immediately excited and enthusiastic about the idea.

By all accounts, the students really enjoy their volunteer mission, and we think the people receiving the food like meeting these boys and girls.

We appreciate the foresight and wisdom Griggs displayed by asking her students to do something for their community.

And anyone out there who thinks the younger generations are lazy and unwilling to help others only needs to look to this group of middle school students to see that’s simply not true.