Staff Spotlight: Tonja Ziemann
Tonja Ziemann has called Rochester home since 2005, but her path here began in Athens, Ohio. After graduating high school there, she attended multiple colleges before meeting her husband at Indiana University. She later completed her studies at the University of Cincinnati. Tonja taught high school in Illinois for seven years before she and her husband decided to make a change. With friends in Rochester and a desire to leave the Chicago area, they “kind of threw a pin” at the map and made the move to Minnesota.
Before joining FSR, Tonja managed a senior living cooperative on the north side of Rochester for 13 years. Her experience working closely with seniors made Family Service Rochester a natural fit. After taking a year off to travel, pet-sitting their way through 11 European countries just before the pandemic, Tonja returned to work. She joined FSR in 2019 and now serves as the Meals on Wheels Coordinator.
Tonja’s role has evolved over time. Initially hired as a program assistant, she gradually from volunteer coordination to consumer services. Today, she manages intakes, conducts home visits, oversees scheduling changes, handles daily cancellations, prepares route sheets, and works closely with the kitchen to ensure meals are delivered smoothly. Her mornings are especially busy as she coordinates last-minute changes before routes go out. She also occasionally fills in on delivery routes, which allows her to stay connected with clients and better understand how routes function geographically.
During COVID-19, Tonja saw the program expand significantly. Meals doubled, and the team served not only traditional senior clients but also county-referred individuals housed in local hotels and shelters. The experience reinforced both the growing need for services and the program’s reliance on volunteers. With 13 weekday routes and seven weekend routes staffed entirely by volunteers, Tonja recognizes how essential community support is to sustaining and expanding services.
She values the relationships she’s built—with drivers, clients, and coworkers alike. With no family in Rochester, those connections have become especially meaningful. Tonja appreciates the supportive environment at FSR, noting strong team collaboration, flexibility when she needed to care for her mother in Ohio, generous benefits, and organizational transparency.
Looking ahead, she sees continued growth in demand, particularly as baby boomers age. She hopes the organization can eventually expand services further, perhaps even operating its own kitchen one day to provide more diverse and specialized meals. "The need is just going to get bigger and bigger."
