Meal delivery trucks made whole in "Blessing of the Truck" ceremony
May 10—FAIRMONT — Marion County residents who rely on meals from the senior center can rest assured their food comes with a divine inspiration.
Senior Center Executive Director Debbie Harvey asked Rev. D.D. Meighen and Pastor Wesley Dobbs — who are on the center's board of directors — to carry out a "Blessing of the Truck" ceremony Monday morning for a food bus the center recently purchased.
Harvey said every time a new food delivery vehicle is purchased, it's customary to bless it before sending it out into the roads of Marion County.
Meighen and Dobbs provided "the blessings" by praying over the bus and thanking God, volunteers, Harvey, people who worked to get the bus to Fairmont and people who will receive meals from the bus.
"Lord we give you thanks for modern trucks and trucks that care for life and hope, to and for others. Bless this truck so that it may also do that, that it can carry food to free people from hunger, to provide those unable to help themselves. Bless its compartments it contains to sustain delicious meals," Meighen said.
"For those that will be served, Father God we just want to ask that you bless them. Keep them Father God. Keep Debbie, heavenly father, as the director of this center. For, Father God, we realize without her guidance, this may not have been possible. So Father, we want to thank you," Dobbs said.
The Marion County Senior Center provides 225 meals a day to residents in Fairmont, Mannington and Farmington. The program, Home Delivery Meals, is funded by donations from senior citizens and others, but Harvey said that donations are not required.
There are three routes for deliveries, which requires three vehicles. The purchase of the new van will put the center at four delivery trucks, which Harvey said will be very helpful.
"This keeps us with a nice fleet, even when one breaks down, we still have a back-up," Harvey said.
The new truck will be used on the longest delivery route and the new back-up, which is a 2016 vehicle with 70,000 miles, is still reliable enough for any of their future needs.
The new delivery truck was made by Delivery Concepts, which Harvey said they have used in the past, and driven from Indiana. Chief Finance Officer and Assistant Senior Center Executive Director Donna Alley said that, as far as she knows, Delivery Concepts is the only place to get the specific truck they purchased. It was paid for by the Marion County Senior Center and cost $63,000, according to Alley.
The vehicle is a Ford F-150 truck that has refrigerated and heated sections. In the back of the vehicle, there are four doors that open to store food. Of those four sections, one is refrigerated and the others are heated.
This makes the fourth truck purchased in the past few years. There was one purchased in 2016, one in 2018, one in 2020 and this one on May 9, but there have only been three "Blessing of the Truck" ceremonies.
Everyone in attendance seemed eager to get the truck on the road.
"We give you thanks now for the journey ahead that this truck is going to go. More than 70,000 [miles,] more than 100,000, more than 200,000 perhaps... Now continue to bless this truck not only for the miles, but for the stops that it makes at peoples' homes. Sometimes through roads that are crusty and uncertain and the uncertain future ahead," Meighen said.
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