For a Good Cause -- Ronald Lampe

Story by June Casagrande, photo by [tk]

Roland Lampe is one of the most welcome visitors in town. Every

Thursday for the last few years, the Costa Mesa resident has showed up at

a loading dock in the back of Hoag Hospital as one of about 12 volunteers

who each day deliver hot and cold meals for Friends In Service to

Humanity’s Mobile Meals program.

“Often, the people are really happy to see me,” the retired airport

administrator said. “Sometimes they’ll invite me into their homes, into

their kitchens.”

Lampe has a regular route he follows every Thursday, often with his

wife, Ruth. He delivers meals to about six of the agency’s clients each

day -- elderly, disabled and otherwise homebound residents of Costa Mesa

and Newport Beach. The hospital provides the food for free, the

volunteers provide the labor and use of their own vehicles and, as a

result, about 100 people throughout Newport-Mesa get a nutritious meal

they might not otherwise be able to get for themselves.

“Some of them I never see. They have storage units out front, and I

leave their meals there,” Lampe said. “Others I get to know pretty well.”

One regular on his route has a fenced-in yard and a rather frightening

dog. Though he knows the dog will be locked inside when he arrives on

Thursday morning, he still follows a safe procedure.

“We have it worked out so that I put it through the gate,” he said.

Lampe said he doesn’t consider his volunteer work a big deal. “It’s

just something to help out,” he said.