Meals on Wheels resumes deliveries
The first Meals on Wheels delivery since a pipe burst in the organization’s offices on Dec. 31 went off pretty well.
Mary Pataky, executive director of Butler Meals on Wheels, said the meals for her clients are now being made in the kitchen at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church hall off Center Avenue.
While the kitchens weren’t damaged by the burst pipe, Pataky worried about the particles that could be airborne during the drying and renovations process.
Since Saturday, Pataky, her staff and volunteers have been braving the frigid weather to move cooking gear from their former kitchen at St. Peter’s Anglican Church on East Jefferson Street to the new temporary kitchen at St. Michael’s.
The first meal was to be delivered on Monday, but meals were canceled because of the extreme cold.
Staff and volunteers prepared 105 meals of chicken, rice, green beans, bread, milk, fruit, yogurt and chips at St. Michael’s today.
“The people at St. Michael’s are wonderful and so accommodating,” said Pataky. “They just let us go in and take over and it’s been amazing.”
She said major renovation work has not begun at the St. Peter’s facility, where the burst pipe soaked everything with hot water, including dry food, paper products, office supplies, furniture, printers and other electronics and the floor and walls.
Pataky has no idea when the renovation on the offices will be complete, but the whole negative situation was turned around for her when the community reached out to help.
Pataky visited the Butler Eagle where she collected a check for $4,300. That money was raised through a fundraiser in which the Eagle’s general manager, Ron Vodenichar, and his wife, Linda, decided to donate $1 for each hoagie sold at The Hoagie Shop on Friday, up to $250.
The Butler Eagle pledged the same amount, and donation boxes were placed at each of the two Hoagie Shop locations on Friday.
A full report will appear in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.
