MINNEAPOLIS — It's the last thing anybody at Meals on Wheels wanted to do, but the forecast of brutal, extreme cold has forced the agency to halt meal deliveries Wednesday.
The Open Arms kitchen in Minneapolis, which cranks out 7,500 meals per week for Meals on Wheels, was still humming along Tuesday. But the meals being cooked and packaged there won't be delivered until Thursday or Friday.
"In this weather I think about staff safety. I think about the driver safety," Sheila McClinton, the food services director at Open Arms, told KARE.
Temperatures are expected to bottom out at 25 degrees below zero in the Twin Cities, with wind chills reaching minus 50 degrees.
"And our distribution centers, many of them will be closed Wednesday and Thursday, so that affects us."
The kitchen is the hub in the system, and the spokes are the distribution centers where Meals on Wheels volunteers pick up the meals destined for home delivery.
One of those sites, Community Emergency Services based at Augustana Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, was still busy Tuesday. But the sign posted on the doors read loud and clear, "C.E.S. will be CLOSED Wednesday, January 30th, due to extreme weather."
McClinton said clients are being urged to use the "blizzard boxes" that were shipped to them in late September and early October in anticipation of such an extreme turn of events. Those boxes are filled with essentials such as soup and tuna, meant to last at least a day.
"We're asking people to hang in there, wrap up warm, use your blizzard box. And we'll be back to business hopefully by Thursday."
School lunches to parks
The Minneapolis Public Schools delivered meals and snacks to 16 different Minneapolis Parks Board indoor recreation centers Tuesday, in hopes of reaching children who'd normally eat at school.
The district called off classes Monday for snow. They were canceled again for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the polar vortex descending upon the state.
MPS serves a high number of students who qualify for free and reduced meals, which can include breakfast and lunch for some students. The district partnered with the Parks Board to help bridge that gap during the cold-out days.
"I'm glad they're doing this because there are some kids who don’t eat at home," said Tauries, a North High basketball player who stopped by Farview Rec Center Tuesday to practice in the gym.
"School is closed, so our basketball practice was canceled. And then the rec center allowed kids and families to come up here and get lunch, and food and something to drink."
But on Wednesday all of the rec centers will be closed, so families will have to make their food supplies stretch or find other resources.