Forging bonds and helping others keeps active, 80-year-old MOW Yolo volunteer extraordinaire looks forward to every day
by Peter Hecht
Bob Rennie has delivered nourishment to seniors in need as a Meals on Wheels Yolo County (MOW Yolo) volunteer for 13 years. At age 80. he’s not slowing down, and credits the personal connections he forms with those he serves as the source of his staying power.
“They’ve all got a story to tell,” he says. “You get more out of it than you give.”
The people Rennie has encountered delivering nutritious, Registered Dietitian-approved meals to seniors include Michael, a homebound San Francisco 49ers fan he bonded with over nine years of meal deliveries before Michael passed away. They swapped stories about football and Rennie always brought treats for Michael’s dog.
“He was never grumpy,” Rennie says. “He was always glad to see you. I was glad to help make his day.”
There was Francie, an elderly woman from Sicily who had trouble hearing his knock on the door when he arrived. So, he fixed her broken doorbell with a new switch and an audible tone. She enjoyed greeting him with stories of her life.
“She was quite beautiful back in her day,” Rennie says. “She had photos of her family and herself in Sicily. She would talk about her family and living on a farm as a young girl, worrying about the nearby volcano.”
“They’ve all got a story to tell. You get more out of it than you give.”
Bob Rennie, MOW Yolo Volunteer, Winters 2023 Senior Citizen of the Year
MOW Yolo serves 1,200 aging adults, providing them with food security and socialization. The program’s strategic plan is to serve 1,800 seniors by the end of 2028.
Rennie had a long career in the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley before moving to the rural community of Winters, where he worked for a time in a hardware store. But he found his real calling in volunteerism. “I wanted to get out and do some things,” he says.
Over the years, Rennie has also volunteered with the Yolo Food Bank, packing hundreds of boxes of food for residents. He is active in animal welfare efforts with 3R Rescue (dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of animals in need of a second chance), and he helped with a Rotary Club of Winters project to build an outdoor garden play area at the Winters Parent Nursery School.
In 2023, he was honored as Senior Citizen of the Year by the Winters Chamber of Commerce.
For MOW Yolo, Rennie loads his car every Thursday with healthy foods—such as chicken, pasta, fish and vegetarian meals—and sets out to connect with older adults in 10 to 16 different homes.
While his conversations with fellow seniors are often brief as he moves from destination to destination, the connections he makes are rewarding for both Rennie and residents, for whom the visits can be affirming and sometimes critical.
There was one senior who didn’t connect with Rennie much directly—her caregiver would always answer the door. But, in addition to providing human sustenance, Rennie always had something for the woman’s five Chihuahuas. “I would ring the doorbell and they would all come outside, sit down, and wait for their treats,” he says.
Once he helped summon an ambulance when a local senior was unresponsive and unable to get out of her chair. She recovered after emergency hospitalization.
Rennie intends to continue volunteering for MOW Yolo for the indefinite future.
“I’m not putting a time limit on it,” he says. “Just keep doing it day to day and look forward to today.”
For more information on how Meals on Wheels Yolo County can help you—or how you can help MOW Yolo—visit www.mowyolo.org or call 530-662-7035.
