More than 600 Tulsans rely on Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa for weekly food deliveries on Mondays and Tuesdays, but due to the inclement weather, it had to cancel them this week.
While it can’t make its normal deliveries, Meals on Wheels says it plans for emergencies such as icy roads.
“We deliver blizzard boxes, we call them, for seven-day shelf stable meal food source," Scott Copeland, director of volunteer services for Meal on Wheels of Metro Tulsa, said. "It’s made for these kind of cases where we can't get to them necessarily, and so they have a food supply for the week.”
But not everyone preserves their Blizzard Box for emergency situations, so some clients were in dire need of food.
“If a client has let us know that they no longer have their shelf-stable food source then that qualifies as a dire need," Copeland said.
Copeland said between Monday and Tuesday this week, 16 of their over 600 clients, reported they didn't have their Blizzard Box.
“We alerted our Saint Bernard drivers who are on call for a time such as this," Copeland said.
Out of Meals on Wheels' 230 volunteer drivers, it has 30 Saint Bernard drivers who can make deliveries in ice, rain, snow, and sleet to ensure clients have food.
“It's a group of individuals who can make it in inclement weather like this, and we deliver to the people who need meals when normal vehicles can't make it," Tom Jensen, first-time Saint Bernard driver, said.
“It can be a world of difference from having to wait an entire week, in some cases, for that guaranteed meal a day, that Meals on Wheels delivers, that security, that hope, that ability to remain independent just a little bit longer because you have that food source, that’s what our Saint Bernard drivers deliver," Copeland said.
Copeland said in preparation for the next storm, Meals on Wheels will go out next week to restock clients' Blizzard Boxes.
He says they typically make a round of Blizzard Box deliveries during the first week of each month during the winter season.
“We make a conscious effort to equip our client when winter weather comes so they have that shelf-stable food source," Copeland said. "We want them to not worry about food; that’s why we're here.”
Copeland says Blizzard Boxes and Saint Bernard drivers are crucial factors in fighting food insecurity and hunger during severe weather.