CEDAR RAPIDS - With more winter weather on the way, a food service for seniors is back in its Cedar Rapids home just in time. Meals On Wheels had to leave the Horizons building after this summer's flood, shifting to two other locations since that time but never missing a meal.

Kitchen Manager Mike Davis considers the flood a blessing in disguise.

Davis says, "I had to order several thousand dollars of pans, whips, spoons, all the things we needed to get back in operation."

The cost for his program is tacked onto Horizon's $2-million upgrade after the disaster. While crews were able to save a lot of the equipment, it was an excuse to enlarge and improve an already cramped kitchen. Since the flood, the need has grown to 18-thousand meals a month.

Program Director Dianna Young says, "Most of these folks are homebound, frail seniors that may or may not be able to continue living in their home if they didn't have these meals."

The need for those meals becomes even more important as the temperatures drop and the weather becomes so dangerous some people can't go outside. That's also when the agency sees a need for more volunteers.

A lot of people, like Larry Easler, joined the effort after the flood.

Easler says, "They needed drivers and volunteers. I thought that's something I could do."

And, if the pace of putting this place back together says anything, it's how urgent this need really is. It normally takes about four months to re-construct a kitchen of this size. This crew did it in just six weeks.

Davis says, "It's great to be home again."

Now, he hopes even more volunteers will consider it that same way soon.

While Meals on Wheels is back in its building, the rest of the Horizons programs won't be back there until the first week of next year.