Meals on Wheels Atlanta volunteers hard at work to distribute food before winter weather hits Georgia
Meals on Wheels Atlanta is a 65-year-old organization that can serve up to 3,500 meals to senior citizens every single day. So, when there is a potentially catastrophic weather event predicted, or even just icy, snowy roads, getting those meals to their clients is paramount, and emergency protocols go into effect.
On Thursday, Meals on Wheels Atlanta volunteer Heidi Wheatley wasn't working her normal schedule.
With a wintry mix expected this weekend, her usual Saturday deliveries are going out midweek so clients can eat safely at home, no matter what happens outside.
"That's what we have to do. We're here to feed these seniors, and for inclement weather, we have to have a plan, and we do," Meals on Wheels Atlanta CEO Charlene Crusoe-Ingram said.
In the organization's kitchen, work begins before dawn. Volunteers start their day at 4 a.m., packing extra meals for a big push to get food into homes before the roads turn dangerous.
"We rolled out our usual plan, and that is to deliver all of the meals that the senior needs over the period that the forecast said snow or ice," Crusoe-Ingram said.
"It makes me feel really loved and cared for," one meal recipient said. "I've never received this kind of love before in my life."
And this year, a critical upgrade is making that turnaround possible. Thanks to recent fundraising, this nonprofit added new freezers so they can store surplus meals and move fast when the forecast turns threatening.
"That's why it's important to have a backlog in our freezers," Crusoe-Ingram said.
Even if the weather stops everything else, these wheels keep turning. By noon on Friday, Crusoe-Ingram said that the seniors they serve will have 14 meals and a breakfast box, enough to get them through to Monday.
What's remarkable about Meals on Wheels Atlanta is that no matter what the weather event, no matter how threatening, because of their expertise, experience, and planning, not one senior citizen will go without a meal.