Lori Tourville, Executive Director

 Director's Message

WHAT TO DO?  WHAT TO DO?  Not again! When it snows, the beauty of it is spectacular—however, it brings its own set of problems.

First and foremost,  “When is it going to stop?” or if already stopped, “How deep and/or icy is it and can our staff make it to work?”  I don’t know about all of you, but I am a Californian through and through.  I don’t do snow.  In this case, along with slippery roads, how slippery are the stairs leading up to the front doors of the Meals on Wheels participants? If my staff can make it to work, can our drivers make it?  If they can make it to the Center, can they then make it up to Cobb, all around up and down Hidden Valley, and to the mountain and out Butts Canyon in Middletown?   You can understand that that “first” is a very important step. 

The Center does hand out “Emergency Bags” to the home- bound.  The bags contain foods which don’t need to be refrigerated or heated or cooked.  It is a great idea for those times when the power goes out.  The contents last a long time on the shelf.  Our homebound seniors are, also, supplied with frozen meals to keep on hand in case meals can’t be delivered because of snow, fire, or floods.  It works quite well as long as the power stays on. 

Those seniors who are able to congregate at the Center and either dine in or pick up and eat elsewhere, Hardester’s is set up with a generator so normally can handle power outages as  well as snow removal in their parking lot, etc.  That makes them an excellent  second choice when the Center can’t handle certain emergencies. 

If our seniors can’t make it to the store because of the bad weather or bad circumstances, elsewhere in this newsletter is information to create an emergency bag for your home.  The center has supplied them in the past but has no funding for them this year.  Included is a list of free food pantries. 

Information and Assistance