Seniors Get Hurricane Help
July 27, 2010 by: Bill Stamps Forecasters are expecting an extra busy hurricane season this year. If a hurricane does hit and people are without power, some Houston seniors will still have food; thanks to one local business and non profit group. Bill Stamps has the story. listen now: One by one workers are going to the homes of Houston’s senior citizens listed on the Meals On Wheels list. They’re used to getting a free hot meal everyday, but today’s delivery had something extra. Meals On Wheel’s Jennifer Poston stopped at the home of Elizabeth Roberson. "Its got extra food in here in case we get a hurricane this year. So its got some canned Tuna and other little pieces of that are shelf stable that don’t need refrigeration so you can keep it all in the box in case a hurricane comes." Roberson has a hard time walking these days. She says she’s lived through several hurricanes and remembers receiving her food from Meals On Wheels in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. "We didn’t have anything to cook with but they were bringing me the meals. And we would like the bbq pit and fix it. We didn’t have light for 18 days." When Ike hit two years ago, Meals On Wheels didn’t pass out the non perishable emergency food box. But manager Jennifer Poston says they tried to get the senior some food as soon as they could. "It wasn’t their typical meal that they got. We had to wait a little bit longer for that. It was our central function our core was to make sure that no senior was left behind without a meal. " Now thanks to donations from Reliant Energy, more than four thousand seniors will receive the emergency food boxes. Poston says the food boxes buy them more time to get the real food ready. "Cause we’ll have to shut down to as that hurricane is approaching as everybody’s making time to evacuate and people are like the judge likes to say Honkering down so that gives us a little extra for them until we can get back up on the road and make sure they get their hot meal like they’re accustomed to." Like most things that are supposed to be used in case of an emergency, the seniors are happy to have the food boxes but hope they never have to use them. Bill Stamps KUHF News. > view printer-friendly version listen to audio: > in your media player download audio: > podcast > iTunes > direct subscribe to audio category: > latest podcast > iTunes > return to previous page |