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Laurel Oates spent 40 years volunteering for Meals on Wheels before becoming reliant on the service herself as a client.
Now, at almost 90 years old, the potential closure of the Broken Hill branch could leave her without the same help she used to so generously give others.
But with a nationwide volunteer shortage impacting Australia's entire not-for-profit sector, Meals on Wheels is worried.
While there have been no "outright closures" of branches yet, since the COVID pandemic the charity has lost 10,000 volunteers nationally, about 20 per cent of its volunteer workforce.
In Broken Hill alone, the Meals on Wheels service which delivers between 90 to 100 meals each weekday, fears it will have to close in a matter of weeks.
Its acting president Muriel Stonham said the ramifications for the city's most vulnerable people would be a "big problem".
But it is the reality if a new management team of volunteers cannot be found.
From volunteer to client
Former volunteer turned client, Mrs Oates admitted she would be lost without this vital service but was more worried about the Broken Hill residents worse off than her.
Laurel Oates volunteered for Meals on Wheels for nearly 40 years. (ABC Broken Hill: Grace Atta)
"I have my son and his family living here which is a great help," she said.
"I'm still able to have use for my car and I'm just so lucky because there's [others] in my age group who don't have the good health that I have."
Despite this, Mrs Oates admitted she was not sure what she would do if her licence was not renewed at her next check and Meals on Wheels were to close.
"I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I just take each day as it comes," Mrs Oates said.
"If worse comes to worse, I think I would have to buy those frozen TV meals."
Mrs Oates saves her leftovers in butter containers in the freezer. She says each one is a full meal for her. (ABC Broken Hill: Grace Atta)
As it is, Mrs Oates only asked for two meals a week from the service, relying on frozen food for the rest of the week.
But she said the service was not just about the meals.
"It is having people come to my front door, seeing people each day," she said.
'Very grateful that they came that day'
Jean Jarvis also lives alone in Broken Hill and has used the service five days a week for the past five years.
Mrs Jarvis recalled one day when Meals on Wheels volunteers answered her cries for help after she found herself on the floor of her lounge room.
"I rolled over to the couch and managed to get up and open the door and the Meals on Wheels lady came and she arranged help for me," Mrs Jarvis said.
"So, I was very grateful that they came that day because I wouldn't have seen anyone else till about five o'clock."
Jean Jarvis says she not only enjoys the food from Meals on Wheels, but the company of those who deliver it. (ABC Broken Hill: Grace Atta)
In addition to the meals and the daily human interaction, Mrs Jarvis said ultimately Meals on Wheels allowed her to keep her independence.
"I'm very independent. And it will depend on my capabilities, but if I can manage with a bit of help like I get now, I would just prefer to stay [in my] home for as long as I can."
National volunteer shortage
Meals on Wheels Australia chair Paul Sadler said across the not-for-profit sector it was well-known that volunteer numbers had fallen.
"That has been a society-wide issue, so it's not only affected Meals on Wheels, it's affected other services too," he said.
"What we are seeing is a reduction in the number of individual service organisations that are providing care."
Rawleigh Smith, 82, and his wife Sandra Gordon-Smith, 74, both volunteer with Meals on Wheels in Broken Hill. (ABC Broken Hill: Grace Atta)
Meals on Wheels NSW chief executive Les MacDonald said the volunteer shortage could be largely attributed to the cost-of-living crisis.
"More and more older people are having to work longer in order to survive," he said.
"They're not retiring at 60 or 65, they're retiring at much later ages. So, there's less of them available to provide the kind of volunteering that's necessary."
Mr MacDonald added that after hearing about the challenges faced by the Broken Hill branch, he was determined to keep them operating.
"It's just too important in your community. Because in the city, people have alternatives and options, but out bush they usually don't."
He says while it's not ideal, the state office is looking at the possibility of taking over the administrative side of the branch in the interim.
The branch is soon to be without a president, vice president and secretary treasurer.
"We've got to step in and provide that support in the short term, but we don't want to take the organisations over," Mr MacDonald said.
"The great strength of Meals on Wheels is its localism. But if it's necessary in the short term to enable it to survive while we look for some other people to step in and take over, that's what we'll do."