Carter Blood Care, which supplies blood to North Texas hospitals, needs to collect at least 1,100 viable units of blood and platelets every day in order to have enough blood for the Dallas area.
While roads were icy, causing accidents, Carter Blood Care was closed for four days.
They only collected 520 units.
The “Snowpocalypse” impacted more than just Dallas schools, airports and the Super Bowl. Local charities around Dallas, including all the blood drivers and centers, were shut down.
“Our main concern was for the safety of our donors and employees,” Chief Administrative Officer at Carter Blood Care Michelle Stefan said. “Fortunately, patients did not suffer as we were able to bring in blood from other areas of the country.”
Carter Blood Care is community maintained and is asking all eligible donors to help them make up for the donations lost as a result of the weather.
The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), which serves 13 North Texas counties, was forced to shut its doors last week, too.
The food collected through NTFB serves nearly 25,000 people per day, but with weather conditions this food could not be distributed.
“We were closed most of last week and now we are going to have to play catch-up,” Paige Phelps, the media director for the NTFB, said.
One thing the weather has not impacted is the NTFB’s “Souper Bowl of Caring.”
The goal of the program is to gather $1.5 million in cash and food items by the time the Super Bowl game is over.
“We are actually up $20,000 from where we were at this time last year,” Cristina Curtis Barbe, the North Texas director for the Souper Bowl of Caring, said.
“Despite the weather, people found it in their hearts to give and give generously.”
In addition to the “Souper Bowl of Caring” donors, there was another man who was not deterred by the inclement weather.
Dallas’ own Soup Man David Timothy and the Soup Mobile worked through last week.
The Soup Mobile is a mobile Soup Kitchen that serves meals to the homeless in the Downtown Dallas area.
“While many businesses and charities have been shut down virtually all week, the Soup Mobile has continued business as usual,” Timothy said. “Our position is that our homeless people need our services in this weather even more than ever. We are 100 percent committed to continuing our services—regardless of the weather.”
As temperatures rise this week, volunteer and charity services in Dallas should start to get back to their normal routine.
“These charities are community maintained and sustained,” Michele Stefan said. “We will have to ask the community to help us in a greater way to make up for this loss.”
