For the third year, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) partnered with Community Cooperative to distribute 400 hurricane kits to Meals on Wheels recipients who are homebound and often unable to go out and buy necessary items to prepare for storms.
Each kit included a three-day supply of nutritious shelf-stable food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, water and snacks to help homebound residents in case Community Cooperative is unable after a storm to make regular food deliveries to Meals on Wheels recipients.
“It means a lot of things besides the survival aspect of a hurricane or getting food in,” said Dennis Dial, Meals on Wheels recipient who also received the hurricane kit. “It means that somebody’s there that cares, and I think that’s a big part of this Meals on Wheels program.”
On June 2, volunteers, including Miss Cape Coral Juliandra De Jesus and her mother Alexandra Berru, along with Community Cooperative and FPL staff packaged the kits. Kits were distributed with Meals on Wheels deliveries on June 9.
“Since the pandemic, Community Cooperative’s Meals on Wheels program has grown about 20%,” said Stefanie Ink-Edwards, CEO of Community Cooperative. “We are extremely grateful to FPL for their continued partnership that ensures our elderly homebound clients will have three days’ worth of food supplies in the event they become isolated due to a storm, and we can’t get to them quickly.”
FPL, which is headquartered in Juno Beach, has been hosting events like this since 2016 and began working with Community Cooperative in 2019 by providing funds and volunteers to pack and distribute the emergency kits.
“We are happy to partner with Community Cooperative once again this year to help seniors in our community prepare for hurricane season,” said FPL External Affairs Manager Charlotte Miller. “At FPL, we work with our communities to help make them better places to live, work and raise a family, and helping our most vulnerable residents prepare is one of the ways we do that.”
For additional information from FPL about storm preparation, visit FPL.com/storm. For information on how to volunteer, support or receive Meals on Wheels food deliveries, visit CommunityCooperative.com.
About Community Cooperative
For 37 years, Community Cooperative has worked to effectively eliminate hunger and homelessness in Lee County while simultaneously inspiring and supporting sustained positive change in its clients by delivering innovative food, education and social service programs. With a dedicated team of volunteers, board of directors and staff, Community Cooperative stays committed to its core responsibility to collect and distribute resources through a strong and viable network of community partners. Community Cooperative is an exemplary steward of the resources entrusted to it and serves clients with compassion and integrity. Through collaboration and ongoing education, Community Cooperative supports and strengthens those whose lives have been affected by hunger and homelessness, ensuring that they have access to the resources necessary to transform their lives with dignity. For more resources and information on how to get involved, contact Tami Holliday at Tami@CommunityCooperative.com or call 239-332-7687 ext. 125. Monetary donations are always welcomed and can be made directly at www.CommunityCooperative.com, or mailed to: Community Cooperative, P.O. Box 2143, Fort Myers, FL 33902.
