Meals on Wheels of East Texas is asking for donations to assemble emergency boxes for their clients. They are asking for shelf-stable items for their clients because they will last longer and are easier for their clients to consume. (Contributed photo)

Meals on Wheels of East Texas is asking the public’s help with its new initiative to serve emergency boxes to their clients.

As rising food costs impact numerous communities, Meals on Wheels East Texas is adapting to meet the needs of East Texans during emergencies. The nonprofit will be assembling two-day emergency meal boxes for their clients instead of buying pre-assembled boxes as it has done in the past.

“The cost of them has increased significantly. So we thought we would partner with the community, because they’ve done so well with our Santa for Seniors program and our dog food program (Meals Fur Pets). We thought we’d employ the assistance of our community to gather these items so we can put together emergency boxes for our clients,” said Meals on Wheels East Texas Executive Director Tiffany Damskov.

Meals on Wheels East Texas serves six counties and 2,500 clients. The group hopes to serve its clients the emergency boxes ahead of inclement weather later in the year. In the future, Meals on Wheels wants to continue the initiative with multiple boxes throughout the year. Its future goal is five boxes for spring and five boxes for winter.

“These are very important because on bad weather days or days when there might be downed trees and we can’t get to them to deliver their Meals on Wheels lunch, we want them to be able to have something that they can consume in case we can’t get to them,” Damskov said.

Each box will include non-perishable items to sustain clients through severe weather or other emergencies where regular meal services would be impacted.

“Most of them are older and disabled clients, and a lot of them don’t have access to go out and buy foods when the weather is getting bad, so they have to rely on us and other organizations to help them,” Damskov said.

To meet the critical needs of their clients, Meals on Wheels East Texas is asking people to donate shelf-stable items from the following list:

• Tuna or chicken pouches (ready-to-eat, 2.5-ounce)

• Juice boxes

• Small individual servings of apple sauce or fruit cups

• Individual boxes of raisins

• Individually wrapped saltine crackers

• Individual servings of peanut butter

• Granola bars

• Hot cocoa mix

• Gallon-size plastic storage/Ziploc bags

Items can be purchased at multiple grocery stores or through their Emergency Meals Amazon Wish List at https://a.co/c9p865P.

Donated items can be dropped off at 3001 Robertson Rd. in Tyler or to any of the East Texas locations listed on their website under the Communities Served tab: https://www.mealsonwheelsetx.org/communities/.

After gathering supplies, Meals on Wheels will need volunteers to help assemble the boxes. They plan to put volunteer dates for people who are interested in volunteering. For more information on volunteering visit: https://www.mealsonwheelsetx.org/volunteer/.

Meals on Wheels of East Texas, with an office at 3001 Robertson Rd. in Tyler, serves Gregg, Henderson, Smith, Van Zandt, Upshur, and Wood counties.