Hi, my name is Dorella and I am the Senior Director of Program Services here at God’s Love We Deliver. I’m honored to say that we have prepared and will be delivering our emergency Blackout Boxes to all of our clients!

We started this tradition several years ago in an effort to make sure that all of our clients receive non-perishable items to eat in the event that there is an emergency of any kind in the city. We started with delivering our Blizzard Box in the winter months in preparation for any severe winter storms that might affect deliveries to clients.

We’re so glad that we began this timely program and timely it is, indeed! If you can remember the blackout in the summer of 2003, it demonstrated to us that anything can happen in our city at any time of year which that might affect our services. Thankfully, we have been able to deliver our Blackout Boxes to all of our clients and their families since then.

Each household that we deliver to will receive a box and households with four or more individuals will receive two boxes. The boxes will include items such as canned tuna, peanut butter, jelly, energy bars, oatmeal packets, bottled water and more.

Many clients have told us that they truly appreciate getting our Blackout Boxes, most notably our clients in Queens that were affected by a blackout in their area in 2006. Also, the many clients that we serve that currently live in single-room-occupancy hotels in the city have told us year after year how our boxes help them to get through any rough patch they might experience.

We have alerted our clients that our boxes will be delivered along with their regular meal delivery this week and the week of July 18th. Our staff and over 80 amazing volunteers prepared more than 2,000 boxes on Sunday, July 10th
This is another service that I am so proud that we can offer to our clients and their families during these times.
For photos of volunteers and staff packing the boxes on Blackout Box day, please visit the Flickr page.

Dorella Walters is the Senior Director of Program Services at God’s Love We Deliver. She currently oversees establishing partnerships with Managed Long-Term Care agencies, client care management, and agency outreach efforts.