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To most people, a can of soup is an afterthought -- something extra to add to a meal, or a warm accompaniment to a cold sandwich on a winter day.

To Marian Lawler of Salem, it's a lifeline.

"It comes in handy," the 81-year-old woman said Wednesday morning as she stood in the immaculate living room of her trailer home. "If I don't get it, I wouldn't eat."

As the Roanoke Local Office on Aging's Soup for Seniors drive draws to a close this year, the community's generosity has once again fed the elderly hungry and disadvantaged and uplifted their spirits knowing that someone cares.

"Well thank you. Many, many thanks," Elsie Surface, an 83-year-old retired laborer, told Meals on Wheels volunteers as she pulled cans of soup from a bag and set them on her kitchen table.

I also say "thank you" to the Roanoke Valley.

With two more days to go, the monthlong Soup for Seniors drive had collected 21,104 cans of soup as of Wednesday afternoon. The donations are just shy of the 22,400 cans collected during the same time period last year. (As cans continued to trickle in, 2007's tally topped 32,000.)

This year's 2,965 boxes of crackers exceed the 2,700 donated during the same period last year. The project is not a fundraiser, but donors have responded with $6,943.42. The money was used to buy additional staples such as canned tuna, fruit cups and oatmeal to go in the food bags donated by Ukrop's.

Project volunteers began delivering the soup bags last week. Volunteers have dropped off food to nearly 2,200 elderly residents of the Roanoke Valley.

Calls of thanks have poured into the Local Office on Aging. Volunteers have tried to contain themselves as elderly women wept when they received care packages.

Barbara James, who developed the drive, took a call from a grateful woman who lives in public housing.

"She was at home sick ... with a really bad cold," James recalled the woman telling her. "She said she wished she had a can of Chicken Noodle soup."

About 10 minutes later, the woman told James, someone knocked on her door with a Soup for Seniors bag.

I've adopted the annual Soup for Seniors as a community project, and it would warm your to heart to see how much goodwill your donations generate.

"It's wonderful," said Lillian Haskins, 84, who is bedridden, of the donated soup. She had spent her working years as a licensed practical nurse for Total Action Against Poverty, a part-time teacher and a pastor.

I met the Salem woman as I tagged along with Meals on Wheels volunteers Terriann May and her mother-in-law Joyce. They delivered the Soup for Seniors bags along with a meal.

The recipients -- Lawler, Surface, Haskins, Ralph Hagy, Patricia McGloshen, and Clarsie Furrow -- are symbolic of the thousands of elderly men and women who live in our community.

They have worked hard all their lives. Some of them held jobs that didn't pay well, or that didn't pay into Social Security, so they didn't get full credit for their earnings.

They worked before 401(k) savings programs existed. So now, in their twilight years, some are unable to stretch their limited income to cover the rising costs of necessities as basic as food.

"I know I'll use that in all different ways. I'll throw a chicken in and then put some soup over it," McGlohen, the retired nanny, said, laughing.

That's good eating for several days.

It is also a testament to community generosity. James and her small LOA staff organize the drive in partnership with the Beta Chi Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. But the community makes it happen.

"We know everybody is having a difficult time," James said. "With the economy, still people are being generous. The phones have not stopped -- people who want to help."

All sorts of organizations and groups stepped up.

Churches. A coffeehouse. College kids. Grade schoolers. A real estate agency. A women's exercise chain. Boy Scouts. Insurance agencies. Public health workers. A phone company. A radio station. Banks. A clothing store. Neighborhoods. Individuals -- all acting on a heartfelt desire to help the less fortunate.

Many don't give their name. They don't want a receipt for tax purposes. They just want to help, James said.

A woman brought in a few cans of soup to the LOA office. She told James, "I cannot stand to think that our seniors are going without."