Rather, the program is best known for delivering hot meals to lower-income seniors. Meals on Wheels, which originated in the United Kingdom during the Second World War, is not a climate organization-or even an emergency-response organization in the traditional sense. The quick actions and persistent outreach of Portland’s local Meals on Wheels chapter most certainly saved lives. “That person was in the heat-exhaustion phase and heading toward the next phase”-heatstroke, a life-threatening condition. Washington remembers calling a woman in her 80s who said she had just fainted, had a headache, and didn’t feel well. The team conducted wellness checks by phone and helped clients find rides to cooling centers. She and her team at Meals on Wheels collected donated fans and air conditioners, which the organization’s drivers brought with them on their food-delivery routes. “We were asking, ‘Do you have a fan? Do you know this heat is coming? Are you prepared? Could you get to a cooling center? Do you know where is?” Washington says. Over the next couple of days, Washington and a group of staff identified their most vulnerable clients, recruited volunteers, and started making calls. “That overlap of their demographic and the demographic that faces great risk from heat is almost identical,” Papaefthimiou says. She called Suzanne Washington, who runs the local chapter of Meals on Wheels. When an unprecedented heat wave bore down on Portland, Oregon, in June 2021, Jonna Papaefthimiou, the city’s chief resilience officer, immediately thought of the city’s most vulnerable populations: older people sweltering, often alone, in their homes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |