NORTH SYRACUSE — In the summer of 1974, Linda Jackson received a call from Barbara Neevel, wife of Pitcher Hill Community Church Pastor Jim Neevel: would Jackson be available to cook for Meals on Wheels over the Fourth of July weekend?

Jackson’s response was, “What’s Meals on Wheels?”

By the end of that year, Jackson would be intimately familiar with the mission of North Area Meals on Wheels. She was hired as NAMOW’s cook that November and went on to serve as director and board member in the decades that followed.

NAMOW celebrated its golden anniversary in a low-key gala Aug. 6 at Driver’s Village in Cicero. Jackson was one of about 125 guests — current and former volunteers, staff, board members and public officials — who gathered to mark the organization’s 50th year.

“To me, those are the most special guests we have here today: the ones that got this started and kept it going,” said Ron Myers, NAMOW board president.

Current and former members of the board of directors gathered to celebrate North Area Meals on Wheels’ 50th anniversary. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Mario’s Bakery and Wegmans provided dessert for the NAMOW anniversary gala. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Former NAMOW board members Jim Corl Jr. and Bob Graves shared smiles and memories at the NAMOW gala. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Onondaga County Department for Adult and Long Term Care Services Commissioner JoAnne Spoto Decker, shown here with NAMOW Executive Director Jennifer Covert, addressed the audience at NAMOW’s anniversary celebration. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

The Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce honored North Area Meals on Wheels at the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Assemblymember Al Stirpe sponsored a proclamation from the New York State Assembly recognizing NAMOW’s 50th anniversary. From left to right are NAMOW Board President Ron Myers, Stirpe’s Communications Director Moe Harrington O’Neill and NAMOW Executive Director Jennifer Covert. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

NAMOW Board President Ron Myers addressed the audience at NAMOW’s anniversary celebration. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Rich Blasland of Too Smooth Entertainment provided live music at NAMOW’s anniversary gala. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Former North Area Meals on Wheels board member and director Linda Jackson, center, helped NAMOW staff cut the cake at the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration Aug. 6 at Driver’s Village. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

What began in 1972 as a project of the North Area Pastors’ Association with just three or four clients has blossomed into an enterprise serving 291 senior, disabled or homebound clients. NAMOW has 12 paid staff and over 300 volunteers. In 2021, the NAMOW team prepared and delivered 122,732 meals across northern Onondaga County.

“Every person that helped with something was a link in a very important chain,” Jackson said.

In her welcome remarks at the Aug. 6 gala, NAMOW Executive Director Jennifer Covert offered profuse thanks to the organization’s army of volunteers, staff and supporters. She also shared stories of how NAMOW has touched the lives of clients such as Paul, who required NAMOW’s services during a period of ill health. Once he had recovered, Paul came to the office to thank the NAMOW team.

“He had just got this haircut — he looked so handsome,” Covert recalled. “He wasn’t in his wheelchair. He walked into our office with a huge smile and said, ‘You changed my life.’”

While much of the gala focused on how far NAMOW has come, Covert emphasized that the Meals on Wheels mission is far from over. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and rapidly rising fuel and food prices, seniors and disabled people in northern Onondaga County are in greater need than ever.

JoAnne Spoto Decker, commissioner of the Onondaga County Department for Adult and Long Term Care Services, said her office has helped serve 350,000 meals across the county thanks to partnering agencies like NAMOW and other Meals on Wheels programs.

“When I look [at NAMOW], I don’t see an organization. I see a family,” she said. “It’s a privilege for us to work with NAMOW and Jennifer and her team.”

Moe Harrington O’Neill, communications director for Assemblymember Al Stirpe’s office, commended the NAMOW crew for putting their “time, energy, heart and soul” into serving some of their most vulnerable neighbors. She presented Covert and NAMOW Board President Ron Myers with a proclamation from the New York State Assembly recognizing NAMOW’s 50th anniversary.

As community members mingled over cake and crudités, the pioneers of NAMOW’s early days reminisced about their humble beginnings.

“It’s been a pleasure connecting with some of the founders and seeing where they came from,” longtime volunteer Bob Graves said. “You can see the spirit in the room.”

Jackson recounted the organization’s evolution from operating out of members’ home kitchens — “My pots and pans were at their limit,” she said — to setting up shop in Calvary Methodist Church in Mattydale, moving to the Salina Civic Center and operating out of the former Riordan School in Mattydale.

The 1980s and ‘90s were a period in which some community members balked at voting for budget increases for the North Syracuse Central School District, Jackson recalled.

“The fact that Meals on Wheels was serving the elderly out of a school — I’d like to think it turned the tide,” she said of the organization’s tenancy at the Riordan School.

Jackson looked around the room at the Aug. 6 gala, pointing out volunteers from NAMOW’s early days and remembering those who were no longer around to celebrate.

“It was always the volunteers, people of faith, who believed it could be done,” she said.

To learn more about North Area Meals on Wheels, visit namow.org.