Each day at 11 a.m., a 70-year-old veteran and survivor of colon cancer known as "Ah-rong" heads out to the Zhishanyan Development Association in Taipei, where he works delivering lunches. Although he never takes food for himself, people here call him "Grandpa Lunch." And Jiahong, who is developmentally disabled and lives in Beitou, is himself a great help to the community. To avoid bringing the wrong food, each day he painstakingly brings a menu to each of the elderly shut-ins he delivers food to. 

With the sponsorship of the Taipei Department of Social Services, 15 administrative districts in the city have implemented Meals on Wheels programs. Every one of the hot, tasty lunch boxes delivered is full of loving care. 

Since the Department began the program in 2003, civic-minded volunteers have helped elderly shut-ins and handicapped people by bringing them meals. In many communities, these volunteers not only bring food, but also have a central kitchen and train people as cooks. They devote themselves to providing nutritionally balanced and delicious meals to the elderly in their communities. For a mere NT$10 or NT$20, each elderly recipient can count on a volunteer showing up with a piping-hot meal ready to eat. 

The Department has now compiled stories from the 15 districts with such programs and compiled a "Spreading Love to Fill the House" social assistance story collection. The intent is to make a lasting record of the compassion of the volunteers. Jiahong, who is developmentally disabled, works with the Fuxing Community in Beitou. Although his intelligence is limited, he works hard every day to write down the foods the shut-ins want on a little piece of paper. He tucks it carefully away and delivers it straight to the central kitchen. 

Another elderly uncle, who is a cancer survivor in the Nanjichang Community, enjoys more nutritious food after placing his order, and is now happy to stroll around outside. After a year of ordering the food he likes, his health has improved greatly, to the point where he was able to travel to China and bring back a beautiful bride. 

Some of the women volunteers who ride bicycles are concerned that they might meet with an obstacle and spill the lunch boxes. But septuagenarian veteran "Grandpa Lunch" has no such fears. He rides his trusty "Wild Wolf" motorcycle up and down the hills delivering food to people his age wherever he goes. 

In typhoons and through power outages that leave buildings without elevator service, the volunteers go forward, climbing the steps one by one. At times they encounter seemingly endless, convoluted stairs in old communities, where they can climb until they are almost blue in the face before discovering that they have gotten the wrong floor and rung the wrong doorbell. The work, while satisfying, can truly have its "ups and downs"!