How Philadelphia "meals on wheels" worked around the I-95 collapse
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Donna Harris started working with the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging seven years ago.
"Right here, we have a manifest telling us what meals to get and how many to get," Harris said.
Monday through Friday, you can find Harris at the meal distribution center on North 17th Street, packing up her truck with hot meals, frozen meals, and the like before heading out.
The assistant supervisor of transportation delivers to seniors in the Northeast.
"A lot of times, we're the only people that they see," Harris said.
Every week, the agency serves 3,500 people a week across the city, 650 in the Northeast.
"We've been successful with all of our deliveries," meal distribution center manager Mike Chambers said. "Haven't skipped a beat."
The program delivers meals five days a week.
Chambers says the agency made changes to how they operate as soon as it learned of the collapse.
"We started our drivers approximately a half hour earlier," Chambers said, "and identified the routes where we'd need to add a helper to each route."
Harris says while the detours are still in place, she is avoiding major streets in the Northeast. She's counting down the days until the six temporary lanes open.
"Now, everybody is knowing the back roads," Harris said, "so they're starting to get congested. Once they open it up, everything will go back to where it was."
Before getting on the road, Harris says it's her passion that literally drives her every day to give back to seniors in need. A little detour, she says, won't stop her.
"Some of them don't even have anything to eat and these are the only meals that they have," Harris said, "so it's determination to get these meals out."
