Meals on Wheels drivers in the Twin Cities will deliver two hot meals on Wednesday to get a head of the storm. The goal is to provide enough food for the 6,000 daily clients so that drivers aren’t out in the worst of the conditions forecasted for Thursday.
Anita Berg, member services director for Metro Meals on Wheels, said the organization’s 31 regional programs all started planning for the double-delivery earlier this week. She said the influx of clients that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic has helped staff prepare for situations like this.
“That helped us learn how to ramp up production, so that certainly is a factor when we need to double up on deliveries,” said Berg.
She said, in some respects, the preparation for bad weather started months ago.
“Early in the snow season, we have a program we call Blizzard Bags, and we put together reusable bags full of low-cook/no-cook food,” that is delivered to clients, Berg said. The expectation is that they’ll have shelf-stable items like macaroni and cheese, instant oatmeal, canned tuna, canned vegetables, or cereal that they can have in case hot food isn’t available.
The expectation is that deliveries of hot food can resume on Friday.