Editor’s note: Our series On the Front Lines recognizes those in the community who are confronting the coronavirus pandemic head-on, while the rest of us do our part by stepping back.

When Cathy Long moved to Spokane, she started volunteering at Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels with her 79-year-old father as a way to get involved in their new community.

Meals on Wheels delivers thousands of meals to senior citizens throughout Spokane County every month. Normally, volunteers like Long stop and check in with their “families,” a label she uses for the senior citizens she serves. They chat about their families, what’s going on that week and share life stories.

Now, it’s almost like a game of ding-dong-ditch, Long said. She drops off meals in a cooler on the client’s front door, rings the doorbell and steps away.

“We still get to say hello from a distance and make sure they’re OK, which is an important part of this,” Long said. “You don’t get to stand and catch up on what their children are doing this week or their grandchildren. … You don’t get to hear what’s going on in their life.”

For Long, the human connection is part of why she started volunteering years ago. Long’s husband is on active duty at Fairchild Air Force Base. The assignment is just the latest in a string of moves for the family.

Long used to deliver meals before the move on her lunch break as a teacher. It helped her “recharge” midday before heading back to school, she said.

“We don’t have to be at a certain point in our lives or working at home or any of those kinds of things, we can do it at any point,” Long said.

Part of Long’s moving routine is to find a place to volunteer and connect with the community. This move was a bit different because her father, John Abbate, came to stay with the family for an extended period. Long and Abbate connected not only with each other but with their new neighbors as they delivered meals to families.

“I’ve been able to meet other volunteers that have become friends,” Long said.

The families she serves are teachers and veterans just like Long and her husband. They’ve made a huge difference in society and deserve to be well taken care of, Long said.

“These are the families to me that gave their entire lives,” Long said. “They’re our coaches and nurses and carpenters, and they spend their whole life giving.”

The door-to-door service has become more important with the closure of 12 Silver Cafes run by Meals on Wheels in the county, where seniors can pick up meals and often socialize. The Silver Cafes are closed for the foreseeable future, meaning more deliveries for volunteers like Long.

Since the start of Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, 140 new people signed up to receive meals, said Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels Director of Development Janet Dixon.

They’re people who really should have signed up a long time ago, Dixon said.

With new families and a massive shift from offering hot meals for pick-up and delivery to now offering only frozen meals delivered weekly, the staff at Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels has been working nonstop.

“For everybody it’s like standing in shifting sand,” Long said. “They’ve risen to do things that I don’t know how they’ve done it. Anytime there is a need they just make it happen.”

Since the population they serve is high-risk, Dixon said they are preparing to shift the way they deliver meals for a significant amount of time, keeping Silver Cafes closed and reducing contact with the seniors.

As they continue to provide meals to people in all 1,800 square miles of Spokane County, Dixon said money is a huge concern.

The new sign-ups have added up along with other monetary hurdles, Dixon said. Community members can donate and sign up to deliver meals online at gscmealsonwheels.org.