Every Wednesday at the Hollywood Center, a couple of young, well-dressed business people hop out of their car, load coolers and take off to deliver a Meals-On-Wheels route. With greetings of "Hi, Carl!" and "How are you today, Mary?" they bring hot food and a friendly greeting to every senior on their route. It’s a different pair every Wednesday, but they all work for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Under the leadership of Chris Koons, area rental manager, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has adopted the route at Hollywood as a way to invest in their community.

"When Jack Taylor founded Enterprise 47 years ago, he established some core values for employees to follow," Chris explained. "Those values are still in place today and one of them is ‘we strengthen our community one neighborhood at a time’. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is located 15 minutes away from 90 percent of the population, so that makes us a part of a lot of neighborhoods.

"Each area manager is given the flexibility to choose how he or she wants to get involved in the neighborhood, so when one of my co-workers mentioned Meals-On-Wheels, we thought that was a great way to give back to our community."

Chris, who manages five store locations in the Portland area, adopted a route every Wednesday. Each week since mid-March, he’s taken two of his employees on the route to show them the ropes and help them learn the route. Eventually, all staff members will have a chance to deliver and then will rotate delivery duties throughout the year.

"Enterprise is a big supporter of United Way, but that doesn’t provide a direct connection to the people in the neighborhoods where we work," Chris said. "Delivering Meals-On-Wheels is a tangible way for our employees to connect with people who live just down the street from where we work. And it’s a great feeling to see how happy the seniors are when we arrive at their door with a hot meal in our hands."