With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing more people out of work and into isolation, Meals On Wheels of Long Beach served a whopping 1,400 dinners in just one day to residents across the Long Beach on Wednesday as a growing need for food increases.

About 40% of the clients are low-income who qualify for the organization’s free meals. The maximum number of meals they can give clients is four days’ worth during the holidays or weekends, according to Bill Cruikshank, director of the nonprofit.

For those who can afford it, two meals per day cost $8.25. They’ve been able to subsidize many of the meals with $100,000 in grants from Southern California foundations, he said.

Currently, Cruikshank said that they have 370 volunteers every week with 38 routes daily. While volunteers consist mostly of retirees and some college students, the organization gained some help from people who have been furloughed from their jobs—an economic blow caused by the pandemic. As outgoing travel and tourism die down too, Cruikshank said Long Beach Airport’s Signature Flight Support employees—the workers who fuel jets—committed to volunteer more than 1,000 hours by the end of the year.

“So these guys are going to work when they leave in about an hour,” he said about the volunteers who helped assemble meals.

But aside from meeting the growing need for food, many volunteers say they put in the hours for the sake of just making someone’s day a bit better.

A smile, a few giggles, or a chat: it’s the “nice part you don’t expect to happen,” said volunteer Alissar “Ali” Chaanine, 35. She and her driving partner Alexandra Sabella, 35, have been volunteering when the pandemic damaged the livelihoods of many, whether that was putting residents out of work or heightening social isolation for many older adults.

“Now, I can’t even imagine not doing this,” Sabella, who is able to work from home, said. “I think it’s really silly looking back not being able to find the time.”

Volunteer Noreen Evans, 67, brings flowers for her regular clients on their birthdays. Just recently, she said, she made them face masks. “When I go up and deliver, I’m the only one they see.”