Ivy Tech steps up as temporary host of Area 10’s hot meals program

The Herald-Times
Posted: Thursday, February 13, 2014 12:52 am | Updated: 1:34 am, Thu Feb 13, 2014.

By Jon Blau 331-4266 | jblau@heraldt.com

The Area 10 Agency on Aging has found a temporary space to cook its hot meals for clients with the help of Ivy Tech Community College.

In the weeks following a burst pipe in mid-January in the basement of Fairview United Methodist Church, the headquarters for the agency’s meals operation, there was no place to heat up meals for delivery to seniors and clients with disabilities. All meals were being served frozen. Ivy Tech officials caught wind of the news and worked to find room for the agency’s equipment in the college’s rented space on Liberty Drive.

Mary Boutain, Area 10 Agency’s nutrition director, said the agency moved its oven last week into the building owned by Cowden Enterprises, which houses Ivy Tech’s Culinary Arts program. Since then, hot meal service has resumed.

About 80 meals are delivered per day, Boutain said. Area 10 Agency has also relocated its home-delivered food pantry space, which serves about 200 people per month, from Fairview United Methodist Church to McDoel Baptist Church.

Boutain said the Area 10 Agency hopes to have a permanent space identified in the next few weeks or months.

“We are just really grateful,” Boutain said. “We talked to a lot of partners, and we received multiple offers, but this is the move that made the most sense.”