Power outage

11 a.m., June 10, 2011

Thursday's storm in Charlotte cut most of the electric power in Friendship Trays' South End building. Staff spent late Thursday afternoon protecting refrigerated food, and on Friday morning we reversed pickups at the building.

Volunteers picked up chilled meals from the loading dock as they came off a refrigerated truck that kept them just the right temperature all night.

By 9:50 a.m. all power had been restored to the building, and the Wells Fargo crew that had labored through the first shift of meal packaging in a very humid and warm kitchen finally got a break for the last shift of their work. Thanks to all for sweating for Friendhship Trays!

But even with the power on, the refrigerators needing time to get back to proper temperatures, so pickups of meals continued from the loading dock.

By Monday's delivery hour, the South End facility will be back to normal, barring more summer storms, so volunteers should plan to return to their normal paths on Monday.

In the meantime, thanks to all whose day was turned upside down or backwards because of the power outage. That includes some recipients whose weekend meals did not intially get out on routes leaving the building.

If you can volunteer to deliver a route on Monday, please call 704-333-9229 and leave us word over the weekend how to reach you by phone on Monday morning after 8:30 a.m.

Thank you for supporting us while we work through this outage. And thanks to the line crews of Duke Power Co. for responding.