The DTE Energy Foundation contributed $100,000 and partnered with five Area Agencies on Aging to provide seniors with hot Christmas holiday meals.

Holiday meals were served to 10,000 seniors in Detroit and its suburbs, Grand Rapids and Muskegon.

“This is a way to give back to our seniors who might not otherwise be able to celebrate the holidays,” said Joyce Hayes Giles, DTE Energy senior vice president, Customer Service. “It also provides our employees, retirees and their family and friends with an opportunity to volunteer and help others in the communities we serve.”

The traditional day-to-day Meals on Wheels program does not provide Christmas meal delivery. The program relies on others to provide the service, and besides funding for the meals, DTE Energy employees, retirees, friends and family spent their holiday day off by packing, serving and delivering the meals.

Approximately 750 volunteers prepared and delivered hot, nutritious meals to homebound seniors served by five local area agencies on aging in communities in and around Detroit, Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Volunteers packed, delivered and served holiday meals including dinner, and in some cases, breakfast and lunch, to seniors from St. Clair County south to Monroe county, from the Detroit River west to Washtenaw county and across the state to Grand Rapids and Muskegon.