Mayor hands out meals to 'hidden parts of city'

What: Meals on Wheels Anderson Spaghetti fundraiser

When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Meals are served on site at the office and can be picked up.

Where: 105 S. Fant Street, Anderson

Tickets: $8 adults, $4 children

Julia Brown opened her front door Wednesday morning to see Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts standing on her door step in a black suit.

She hugged him, and invited him into her clean, neat house. She has lived in Anderson for 80 years. He grew up down the road, and his mother grew up on Short Street. They talked a bit before he handed her a tin of hot fish and grits. She asked if he remembered her only son, Porkchop. Yes, he did, the mayor said.

He was a good baseball player, Roberts told her.

Porkchop died young after a bullet struck him. He was a couple of years before the mayor in school.

Roberts has been mayor for almost seven years and he grew up on the citys west side. He has walked the frayed pockets of his city where the elderly are hungry and some are forgotten. He recognizes a few faces.

He gestured to a row of shabby houses. All of it looks different thats 40 years, he said. The neighborhood has changed.

The mayor handed out meals Wednesday as part of Mayors for Meals Day at Meals on Wheels Anderson. The event was the day before the Meals on Wheels spaghetti fundraiser. The public can buy meals from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. All proceeds benefit the nonprofit organization.

Roberts does this every year, continuing a tradition that his kids started when they packed food behind the nonprofits counter on Fant Street.

This road that were on and these routes that the volunteers deliver Meals on Wheels, those are the hidden parts of our city, the mayor said. Sometimes we get too comfortable and dont look outside our boundaries we live in.

On the first day of spring, under an overcast sky, few people stirred Wednesday morning. Some! recipients nodded knowingly as Roberts introduced himself, and a few apologized for not knowing who he was.

Roberts and Westside High School senior Austin Nichols joined Vinnie Dill on her route. The retiree has volunteered with Meals on Wheels since 2005. She typically drops off 17 meals every Wednesday, sometimes more days as needed.

I just have a love of people, she said, smiling. I dont meet strangers, just people.

Nichols was shadowing the mayor and wants to go into politics after graduating from Coastal Carolina University.

He handed out meals too and got hugs and handshakes.

I love it, Nichols said. Going out in the community, thats what I want to do.

Most mornings the kitchen at Meals on Wheels is crowded. On Wednesday sixth-grade students from the Montessori School of Anderson spooned collard greens and dipped pear slices in tins. Once a week, Susanna Merriman, a registered nurse at the school, rounds up five students to volunteer. A group has come out since the 1990s.

Its one of the joys of the week to bring the kids out here, Merriman said.