Volunteers from Olympus, Selective Insurance, Computer Aid and Meals on Wheels gathered in a conference room at the Computer Aid facility, 1320 Hausman Road, Allentown, Oct. 17 to pack 900 emergency food bags for the homebound to use when meals cannot be delivered due to bad weather or other emergencies.

Meals on Wheels volunteers provide homebound clients with a day's worth of shelf-stable food items, such as oatmeal, beef stew, canned vegetables, tuna and soup. These "blizzard bags" are free of charge and are to be saved for when meal deliveries are canceled. The meals are replaced as needed.

For the past two years, these bags were needed at the end of October during a strange early winter snowfall in 2011 and in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

This is the third year in a row Meals on Wheels requested community help to collect food so the agency would have enough to pack 900 bags. Local companies, organizations, individuals and Meals on Wheels held food drives to collect specific items for the bags.

The food collection saves the agency more than $6,000 which can be used to help subsidize daily meals costs for clients.

Computer Aid donated space to store the food.

Meals on Wheels of Lehigh County is a non-profit organization that delivers nutritious meals to 360 clients each weekday on 33 delivery routes. More than 130,000 meals are delivered each year.

Meals on Wheels clients are seniors or adults with disabilities who are homebound and unable to cook or shop for themselves. Ninety-two percent of clients cannot afford to pay the full cost for their meals so the agency depends upon three annual fundraisers and the generosity of the community to meet the needs of the program.

To learn more, or to donate, visit the agency's website at www. mealsonwheelslc.org.