CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging is seeking community support for the vital Blizzard Box program, which helps to keep seniors from going hungry during the winter months.
Opportunities to become a sponsor are available by visiting www.ccaaa.net or contacting the agency at 814-765-2696.
Each year, across Pennsylvania and other states in the USA, Blizzard Boxes are packed and delivered to homebound Meals on Wheels recipients.
Typically, a combination of nonperishable foods, they are packaged and delivered at the onset of winter.
Consumers are encouraged to store the meals in a safe place to use as a backup for stormy winter days when the Meals on Wheels staff may be unable to deliver a hot meal.
On these days, consumers are called and reminded to use some of the food from their Blizzard Box. Boxes are replenished as they are used, depending on available supply.
On any given day, about 600 senior citizens in Clearfield County are served through the CCAAA’s Meals on Wheels & More program.
Over the course of the winter, over 1000 different people will have been served Meals on Wheels & More. Each year, Blizzard Boxes are provided to every one of these meal recipients.
Since 2011, every Blizzard Box has contained the nutritional equivalent of three full meals which meet standards set by the Older Americans Act (1/3 of the recommended dietary allowance for adults over 55).
Typically, they contain products like canned soup, Hormel Complete meals, crackers, cookies, shelf-stable liquid milk, juices, tuna and peanut butter.
Products are currently being analyzed, and we look forward to providing another round of quality, nutritious Blizzard Boxes to all Meals on Wheels & More consumers before our first snowfall.
Food items are purchased in bulk in order to obtain the best possible price and the cost to sponsor each three-meal box is $10.
While small variations of the concept may have existed in various areas of the country for years, the formal program actually began in Clearfield County in 1983 with the Clearfield Rotary Club and the CCAAA.
This year funding from sponsors such as the Stoltz Family of Dealerships of DuBois, Appalachian Wood and the Clearfield United Way was donated toward this program.
The agency proudly displays a logo for each of its sponsors on each box and thanks them again for their continued support of this vital program.
In the last decade, support has also poured in from family members, individuals, business partners, organizations, church groups and service clubs of all kinds, making it possible to remain entirely a local effort without the use of federal or state funds for the 39th consecutive year.
In 1990, the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging, and its partners at that time, the Clearfield Rotary Club, and the Clearfield & DuBois Dairy Queen owners, received a national Community Achievement Award from the U.S. Administration on Aging naming the Clearfield Blizzard Box Program, “an outstanding public-private partnership.”
It is now replicated by Area Agencies on Aging and service groups and organizations all across the United States.
Donations can be sent at any time to the CCAAA at 600 Cooper Rd., Curwensville, PA 16833 or made online at www.ccaaa.net.