Longtime cook dishes on Aspinwall Meals on Wheels' 50 years serving the area
Susan Glendening is a cooking force known for her homemade soups and meals served with steadfast dedication.
For the last 23 years, Glendening has prepared homemade hot and cold entrees, five days a week, for delivery by volunteers at Aspinwall Meals on Wheels.
In total, she’s been affiliated with the independent nonprofit for 33 years, first as a volunteer, and later, hired as the cook.
“My mother insisted that I volunteer when I moved back and I began volunteering here in 1992,” she said of how she first discovered Aspinwall Meals on Wheels.
After the Aspinwall Presbyterian Church burned down, leaving Meals on Wheels without a home base, organizers secured a new kitchen location in 1999 at St. Edward Church in Blawnox.
In 2002, the previous cook suffered a heart attack and Glendening was the sole volunteer who held a food safety certification.
“They asked me if I would temporarily fill in — and I’m still temporary,” said Glendening, 67.
Cooking credentials
The O’Hara resident attended Pennsylvania Culinary School in Downtown Pittsburgh and originally started out as a volunteer for the independent nonprofit that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Glendening runs an efficient, friendly and aroma-filled kitchen and works alongside dozens of volunteers weekly, year-round, to feed Fox Chapel area folks ordering meals delivered to their residences.
She draws on her internationally diverse culinary influences when planning which hot and cold meals to make.
“I’m Italian. So Italian food,” Glendening said. “My mother’s southern, so southern food.”
Meatless meals year-round every Friday are important to Susan.
“I have a lot of old-school Catholic clients,” Glendening said.
Glendening previously lived in Florida and New Jersey, but the pull of Pittsburgh remained strong and she has no plans to leave.
Glendening plans all of the menus and does all of the food shopping, planning and ordering.
“I don’t have too many complaints,” she quipped. “I work really hard to work around that.”
Every meal follows a low-salt, low-fat menu with a healthy focus.
“I still cook at home and enjoy it,” Glendening said. “One woman wants carrots every day and one wants peas — they’re all different. Three meals that I can’t get rid of are meat loaf, stuffed pork chops and lasagna rollups.”
The 50th anniversary of Aspinwall Meals on Wheels is heartfelt for Glendening.
“It’s something I enjoy doing, taking care of people. I guess it’s a calling,” Glendening said. “I’m very proud that they managed to maintain operations.”
To date, the organization has doled out more than 400,000 meals since its founding in 1975.
Aspinwall Meals on Wheels receives no state or federal funding and therefore must charge for their meals and rely on volunteers to operate.
Glendening and Jim Eberhart of O’Hara are the two kitchen employees.
“We are very grateful that they have supported us so well and for so long. I’m blessed by the volunteers that I have. They are phenomenal and I’m very grateful to them,” Glendening said.
More than ‘just a cook’
Meals on Wheels board president and volunteer Sue Ellen Nugent of O’Hara said many clients are long-term.
The late Ann Casile, a steadfast volunteer and co-founder of Aspinwall Meals on Wheels, hired Susan as cook and Nugent said that when Susan goes away on vacations, her cooking skills are missed as volunteers have to step in to make meals.
“Susan is the backbone of this,” Nugent said. “The clients are not clients to her, they’re family.”
Glendening’s mother, the late BJ Puntereri, volunteered at Aspinwall Meals on Wheels.
“She’s invaluable, dedicated and caring,” Nugent said.
Meals cost $7.75 for two meals and include delivery.
Clients must be unable to drive, get to a store or cook in order to qualify as a client.
Typically, it’s senior citizens, but it’s open to anyone who qualifies, such as a person who had surgery that affected their mobility.
Nugent said each year, Aspinwall Meals on Wheels usually comes up short with finances, so the meals can’t be free.
The nonprofit used to serve about 60 individuals a day and now averages about 34 daily.
Clients who fall and relocate to a nursing home or move away are two main reasons for the decrease in orders.
Delivery is available to O’Hara, Fox Chapel, Aspinwall, Sharpsburg and Blawnox.
The need for more volunteer drivers is constant because many of the 60-plus volunteers snowbird down south during the winter months.
“Thank you, community. We depend upon donations to make up for the cost of the meals,” Glendening said.
Joyce Hanz is a native of Charleston, S.C. and is a features reporter covering the Pittsburgh region. She majored in media arts and graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
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