Meals on Wheels, Indianapolis

We Deliver Smiles

National Wine & Spirits, Inc.

Every structure needs a backbone, a steady and reliable source of good moral fiber. For us at Meals on Wheels , that backbone is embodied by our volunteers at National Wine & Spirits.

Covering routes in the St. Francis area of Beech Grove, these 14 volunteers and other substitutes have unfailingly completed their routes, day in and day out, since 1991.

That's when the company decided to make community service a core value of the company, according to John Baker, their Chief Operations Officer who has also delivered meals as a substitute driver.

Baker said, “ Indianapolis is our home, and we want to do our part to make it a good place to live. We try wherever possible to support our employees' involvement in community service. Meals on Wheels is an organization that really means something to the people who work here, as well as to our community.”

Indeed, the company provides its employees with a special van that it just upgraded last year to make the deliveries. And, the employees still get a lunch hour on the days they make deliveries.

Gina Leffler, who assists Tim Dale in coordinating the company's volunteer activities said she loves going out on their route not only to deliver meals, but to extend that “personal touch” so many volunteers have come to expect from Meals on Wheels : “Sometimes they look for us just to say ‘hello.' It's not always about the food—it's about the friendships that develop and grow over time.”

National Wine & Spirits began in 1934, just after Prohibition in the United States ended and the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage commission began issuing liquor, wine and beer permits. Early shareholders included John E. Ohleyer, Jules J. Fansler, and the family of Frank E. McKinney. The south-side facility still bears marks of the original train tracks that ran through the warehouse.

Today, the company is owned by J im & Pat LaCrosse and Norma Johnston. It processes an average of 20,000 cases per day out of two locations— Indianapolis and South Bend —serving 8,500 customers. The company and its related divisions employ more than 1,700 people in several states, and is the nation's 10 th largest distributor of wine and spirits.

Meals on Wheels is grateful for the volunteer
service of these National Wine & Spirits employees:

For further details, please contact us at 317.633.6325, or by e-mail at info@mealsonwheelsindy.org .

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