Air Products Blizzard Bag Volunteers
Today volunteers ensured that homebound seniors and adults with disabilities have food to eat tomorrow, October 30, although regular delivery is cancelled due to Hurricaine Sandy. Employees from Computer Aid helped load the bags into our volunteers' cars. Delivery volunteers then delivered 350 "Blizzard Bags" supplying an entire day of nutrition along with clients' regular hot and cold meals. Another round of bags will be delivered next week.
This is the second year that we reached out to our community to help us prepare for days when our volunteers cannot deliver meals due to bad weather or another emergency. Local companies, organizations, individuals and Meals on Wheels volunteers held food drives throughout August and September to collect enough food to fill 900 bags saving the Agency $6,000. This savings makes it possible to fully fund 857 of the 58,124 meals that need to be funded this year..
Ellie Urban, an 8th grade social studies teacher at Raub Middle School, told us she got involved in the food collection because: "Both my mother and my uncle utilized it especially during the winter months. They both were diabetics and relied on well- balanced meals to maintain their sugar levels. There were many times during some of the very snowy winters when I was very thankful for the emergency meals that they provided when it was very difficult to get to them in the city. Meals on Wheels were truly lifesavers!" (
Raub Middle School teachers, staff and students had a goal to collect 50 cans of vegetables but exceeded their goal and delivered 150 cans)
Computer Aid provided storage and packing space for the food. Selective Insurance, Air Products, Computer Air employees, regular Meals on Wheels volunteers and other community members packed the bags. These volunteers packed all 900 bags in under three hours!
Thank you to the following for collecting the food to fill these bags:
Air Products (Qian Cai, Coordinator)
Asbury United Methodist Church (Evelyn Hart, Coordinator)
Sharon Bligh-Farrell
Brownie Troop 685 (Kate Heflin, Coordinator)
Buckeye Partners (Jen Walls, Coordinator)
Computer Aid (Laurie Kuhns, Coordinator)
Cornerstone Advisors (Barbara Yaissle, Coordinator)
CyOptics (Lori Sugra, Coordinator)
Phil DelVecchio
Dries-Reichard Oil (Debbie Frey, Coordinator)
Episcopal Church of the Mediator (Lisa Hain, Coordinator)
Greenawalds UCC (Sherri Stephens, Coordinator)
Wendy Kovich
Longhorn Steakhouse-Whitehall (Meghen Yaich. Coordinator)
Lower Milford Residents Assn (Mary Lou Matulevicius, Coordinator)
LSI, (Joy Reed, Coordinator)
Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County Delivery Volunteers
Miers Insurance, (Diane Wertman, Coordinator)
Notre Dame HS Key (Sarah Petrik, Coordinator)
Penn Treaty (Jaclyn Dorney, Coordinator)
PPL (Angela Erlacher & Gladys Torres, Coordinators)
Raub Middle School (Heather Harlen, Coordinator)
Joan Slota