HOUSTON (June 30, 2020) – Each year prior to Hurricane Season, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (Interfaith Ministries) prepares the over 5,300 homebound seniors it serves through Meals on Wheels for hurricane season with a week’s worth of emergency, shelf-stable food. This food is to be used if a storm disrupts meal deliveries.
This year, Interfaith Ministries expedited its emergency food distribution to mid-March, to ensure seniors had access to food in case COVID-19 affected deliveries. The organization already had sponsors for this project and raised additional funds to cover the extra costs of expediting the distribution and using staff, rather than volunteers, to make the deliveries.
Now that hurricane season has begun, and it is expected to be a very active storm season, Interfaith Ministries is making a second distribution of emergency food specifically in case a storm hits the Greater Houston and Galveston areas. This second distribution was made possible thanks to a large grant from the W.T. and Louise J. Moran Foundation.
“We are so grateful to the Moran Foundation for allowing us to make this second distribution of emergency meals to prepare our seniors for hurricane season,” said Martin B. Cominsky, president and CEO of Interfaith Ministries. “The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way we provide Meals on Wheels, but we have continued to serve our seniors and even increased the number served at this critical time.”
Before the COVID-19 crisis, Interfaith Ministries’ Meals on Wheels program served around 4,300 seniors daily with a hot meal. As a part of our response to the pandemic, we have increased the number of Meals on Wheels we serve to over 5,300 seniors in a five-county area with contactless weekly frozen meal delivery and daily calls to check-in with this vulnerable population.
Additional partners involved in Meals on Wheels include: Harris County Area Agency on Aging; Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo; Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services; Texas Veterans Commission; and the United Way of Greater Houston.
To support the work of Interfaith Ministries Meals on Wheels program visit https://www.imgh.org/donate/operation-impact/.