Lewis County Seniors Nonprofit Seeks Help After Carport Collapses in Snow

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Lewis County Seniors (LCS) is seeking community support after snow collapsed a carport at the Twin Cities Senior Center this weekend.

Their meal program, which delivers seven meals a week to over 600 seniors in Lewis County, utilizes two freezer boxes provided by Dry Box and three portable garages, all kept outside in the parking lot due to limited space indoors. The program purchased three carports — two for a couple hundred dollars from Walmart and one special ordered to accommodate the size of the freezer boxes for $400 or $500 — to keep food dry when it’s transferred between the kitchen and the freezer boxes so that packages don’t freeze together in the freezer boxes. Because of the extremely low temperatures in the freezer boxes, packages that freeze together are extremely difficult to separate without damaging the packaging or the food inside; but the addition of the carports did enough to minimize the amount of water on the outside of the packages so that they no longer froze together in the freezer boxes. 

“We’ve been functioning fabulously under there,” Executive Director Glenda Forga said. 

Then a snowstorm hit. And on Saturday, Forga got a call that the carport over the freezer boxes had collapsed. 

“We’re trying so hard to keep these seniors in their homes sheltering in place, and now a part of our operation has collapsed on us,” she said. 

Thankfully, all the meals for the next week had already been prepared and were still good to deliver — and thanks to a community member who volunteered to clear the parking lot of snow and slush, LCS was able to load up over 900 meals into four-wheel-drive vehicles Monday morning to deliver to seniors in eastern Lewis County and will be able to deliver meals along the rest of its routes as scheduled this week. But the collapsed carport was unsalvageable. 

“We’re going to have to get something up there in its place,” Forga said. “We’ve got to keep these meals dry.” 

Forga is asking anyone in the community with a metal carport or similar structure to spare to reach out and talk to her about donating the structure or lending it out temporarily until LCS can come up with another solution.



“Lewis County has a population of people with such good hearts,” Forga said. “This county steps up when people need help, and I feel so blessed with the opportunity we have of serving in Lewis County.” 

LCS is also raising money for its capital campaign to expand the kitchen at Twin Cities Senior Center so it can serve as a central hub for future operations — a $700,000 project.

Donate to that fund online at  gofund.me/b3695868. 

For more information on LCS and the senior meal program, visit the nonprofit’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LewisCountySeniors.