Oklahoma AFSCME Members Donate to Senior Meals (senior nutrition meal program ended by budget cuts)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/publications/27652.cfm

January 21, 2010

When news spread that the city of Edmond would close its senior nutrition meal program because of state budget cuts, AFSCME members stepped up to the plate to keep the meals coming.

In December, members of the Edmond chapter of Oklahoma City AFSCME Local 2739 donated $650 to the Edmond Senior Center lunch program, which serves approximately 65 hot meals three days a week.


FROM THE HEART – Edmond AFSCME Chair Brian Green, left, and Vice Chair Terry Lanham, center, present a donation to Edmond Senior Center Manager Gail Deaton to help the senior lunch program.

Photo Credit: Rex Hogan


“It’s the older, frailer citizens who come here,” says the center’s manager, Gail Deaton. “What we’ve found is many of them no longer live in their homes. Most are in assisted living centers, or live with a son or daughter. Few of them cook for themselves.”

Terry Lanham, Edmond AFSCME vice chair and the marketing coordinator for the Edmond Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the inspiration for AFSCME’s contribution came from city building inspector Larry Kellner.

Kellner, a steward and a member of his local’s executive board who grew up in Edmond, says he learned from news reports that the state would cut $173,000 from the Oklahoma County Senior Nutrition Program. Of Oklahoma County’s 27 senior nutrition sites, the Edmond facility would absorb approximately $53,000, enough to end the program.

FULL story at link.

[pansypoo53219]

1. contras to the teevee gnews

about haiti and their elderly suffering. i am waiting for american ghettos to get as much attention as haiti.