THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, April 3, 2020 Page 7 Governor Announces Additional Steps to Encourage Social Distancing at State Parks and Beaches Coastal State Beach Parking Areas Will Temporarily Close; Select Seasonal State Parks to Open Early BOSTON — Governor Charlie Baker Thursday issued an emergency order requiring all coastal beach reservation parking areas managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to close eff ective 12:00 PM on Friday, April 3, 2020 to reduce large concentrations of people at beaches during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, eff ective 12:00 PM on Friday, April 3, 2020, DCR will open select seasonal state parks early and expand access at other parks to provide additional open space opportunities for residents to enjoy and alternatives to popular state parks throughout the Commonwealth. Coastal parkways that provide access to state beaches will also be closed to both parking and dropping off passengers. State beaches will remain open and available to pedestrians for transitory use only (walking, jogging, biking, solitary fi shing, etc.). State parks and associated parking areas remain open at this time; however, the public is asked to visit state parks and other open space properties that are located near their homes to ensure social distancing to limit the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, DCR’s agency-owned ice rinks, visitor centers, campgrounds, playgrounds, fitness areas, athletic fi elds, athletic courts, golf courses, and bathroom facilities will remain closed until Monday, May 4, 2020. DCR will also be limiting the amount of parking spaces available at certain high-visitation state parks. DCR continues to stress that if a park is crowded, visitors should consider visiting a diff erent location or returning at a later date or time. The state parks system has over 450,000 acres of property, and every region of the state contains multiple parks to explore that may be less busy than others in the area. DCR advises visitors of Volunteers rally together to deliver 10,000 emergency meals to MVES consumers D uring a typical month, Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) delivers approximately 50,000 meals to more than 2,000 older adults aged 60 to 100+ years in their homes as part of the Meals on Wheels program. These individuals are our loved ones, parents, grandparents, veterans and neighbors. The program provides hot and cold nutritional meals daily to these individuals as some might struggle to prepare meals for themselves, or because of physical limitations or fi nancial diffi culties. However, these are not typical times. But despite the pandemic that surrounds us, MVES continues to serve home-delivered meals to consumers, and the number of those needing meals delivered is increasing daily. “Along with daily meals, we have been delivering extra shelf-stable meals to our consumers and are initiating other methods to assist meal delivery personnel and provide the best services to our consumers,” said MVES Director of Nutrition Angie Fitzgerald. One of those methods is delivering a weeks’ worth of frozen meals to the consumers to help with their nutritional needs at this trying time. “We began delivering frozen meals last Friday with deliveries continuing into the middle part of this week. These boxes of emergency frozen meals will provide our consumers an option to use in the event their regular daily meals are interrupted by the eff ects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Fitzgerald. One hundred thirty volunteers delivered 10,000 frozen meals across MVES’s 11 community service area. Those volunteers were MVES staff, Council on Aging partners, community offi cials and other members of the community. Those volunteers reported how thankful the consumers were – stating words of appreciation, such as, “Thank you and stay safe out there” and “God bless you for what you are doing.” MVES’s Nutrition Department created manageable and realistic delivery routes for the volunteers as they met in MVES’s parking lot to help unload Lindley Food Service’s truck and then load up their cars for delivery. “I want to thank all the volunteers who helped deliver the frozen meal packs. We got a great response to our call for volunteers. It was a great team eff ort,” said MVES CEO Daniel O’Leary. RIGHT BY YOU RIGHT BY YOU BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT state parks to: Stay within solitary or small groups, and avoid gatherings of ten or more people; Practice social distancing of at least six feet between individuals; Participate in only non-contact recreational activities; Practice healthy personal hygiene, such as handwashing for at least 20 seconds; and, Stay home if ill, over 70, and/ or part of a vulnerable population. To centralize COVID-19 updates that impact the state parks system, DCR recently developed a Massachusetts State Parks COVID-19 Updates webpage. Prior to visiting a state parks property, members of the public should review the contents of the webpage. Furthermore, for information about the Baker-Polito Administration’s ongoing eff orts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, please visit the Department of Public Health’s (DPH) website. 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