Meals on Wheels program assistant and driver Annie Neri introduces herself to Michael Leipzig, a client with cerebral palsy, as she makes her deliveries Thursday. The organization needs drivers because of a record number of clients.

Around lunchtime Thursday, Annie Neri drove a maroon Buick LeSabre that was the beef-cube-and-asparagus mobile.

The Lawrence Meals on Wheels program assistant and volunteer driver made stops to drop off meals to four people in need.

“This is so I get my vegetables every day,” Michael Leipzig said.

Leipzig, 46, receives a meal around noon every weekday, and he typically saves it for dinner time. He was born with cerebral palsy and now uses a wheelchair to get around his western Lawrence apartment. He’s been a Meals on Wheels client for six months.

The program has a record 115 to 120 clients on 19 routes. Staff members are searching for 10 to 20 more volunteer drivers, particularly with summer approaching and college-student volunteers leaving town.

“We are using (substitute drivers) right now more than once a week sometimes, which we don’t like to do,” said Kim Culliss, executive director of Lawrence Meals on Wheels.

The organization delivers meals on weekdays to senior citizens and others who are on a doctor-prescribed diet.

Often during the summer, teachers and others with more free time volunteer to drive. But during the last year, the program’s client base has doubled to help serve an aging population.

The organization does not turn away anyone needing the service. Meals are prepared by Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

This year Meals on Wheels became a United Way-funded agency, and operates with grants from the Rice Foundation, Douglas County Community Foundation, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Older Americans Act.

Culliss said volunteers and staff members hope to raise more than $10,000 at the “Enjoy” Lawrence Meals on Wheels Silent and Live Auction at 5:30 p.m. April 21 at Abe & Jake’s Landing, 8 E. Sixth St. Tickets cost $25.

As for volunteers, drivers deliver a few meals on a route anytime from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. one day per week. Anyone interested in volunteering can call the office at 830-8844.

“This is the best volunteer job ever because of the time limits that it requires,” said Neri, a KU graduate student in religious studies. “It’s pretty much an hour a week. You can’t get much more precise than that.”