State budget cuts leave some seniors hungry

State funding to the Kingston Senior Center may have ceased, but the doors are still open — for six more months, at least.

The center reopened Thursday after closing Oct. 30, along with six other sites that were part of the Southern Oklahoma Nutrition Program. The reopening is thanks to Dorothy Taylor, director of the Kingston site, her husband, Tommy, and a number of concerned area residents.

Taylor said she knew exactly how much Kingston senior citizens lost when the nutrition program was ordered cut from the list.

“That’s the only place they (seniors) had to go,” Taylor said. “To have that taken away from them, it’s horrible. It’s so hard on them.”

She said many of the seniors she saw at the Kingston site were either unable or couldn’t afford to drive to the Madill Senior Center daily in order to take advantage of the still-operating nutrition program. But that was the only option available when the Kingston site fell on the budget-cutting block. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services cut $7.4 million from the Aging Services division and SONP had to find the best way to cope with losing $359,589 in funding.

The program cut Kingston from the hot meals roster, along with six other communities in the 10-county area the agency served, including Caddo, Calera, Wapanucka, Maysville, Wynnewood and Roff.

SONP Project Director Pat Peay said sites that were closed were centers where participation had dropped drastically, and those close to another SONP site. Kingston senior citizens were rerouted to Madill and Wynnewood’s seniors to Sulphur.

When the Kingston program closed, Taylor moved to the Madill center, working along side of Patsy Allman, the site manager. But the addition of more mouths to feed with less money made the going tough. Allman said the added workload is taking its toll on the Madill site’s workers — two cooks, a delivery driver and a few volunteers serving Madill, Tishomingo and Kingston, along with the other small surrounding communities.

“We’re just having to do it,” Allman said. “We just can’t give up.”

Allman said the seniors in Kingston lost more than just a daily hot meal, they’ve lost a link to the outside world with the closing of their center.

“When they went to eat, they got to socialize, as well,” she said. “Some of them wouldn’t even get out of their houses.”
 

Moving to the Madill site also meant Kingston residents could no longer get hot meals delivered, but could still receive frozen or shelf-stable meals.

That’s when Taylor’s husband, Tommy, took it upon himself to start the drive to reopen the Kingston Senior Center. He solicited enough donations from local businesses to keep it open for another six months. Taylor also did her part, seeking help from the Kingston City Council. But she said the council was unable to contribute to reopening the center.

“Kingston doesn’t seem to want to help us at all,” he said.

While the Kingston site has reopened thanks to the efforts of Taylor and other area residents, the Wilson Senior Citizens Center, which serves Carter County, escaped the budget cut intact.

“We were fortunate not to get cut,” site manager Johnna Greenroyd said.

She said the nutrition program provides warm meals for seniors to eat on-site and delivers warm meals weekly to home-bound seniors in the area. The program also provides enough frozen or shelf-stable food for seniors to have at least one nutritional meal every day. And Greenroyd agreed with Taylor and Allman that the nutrition program serves more than food, it also provides social interaction for otherwise isolated seniors.

“We may be the only people they see that day,” she said.

But the Wilson center and others that were not hit by the October closing may not be so lucky in the future.

Peay said DHS has cut most of the funds needed to qualify for federal matching funds, and she doesn’t hold out much hope for the future without intervention from the state legislature.

“When we get to looking 12 months down the road, they’ll cut the rest and we’ll be in trouble then,” she said. “I don’t even want to think about next year.”

State Sen. Jay Paul Gumm has taken up the cause, recently meeting with senior citizens in the area about the possibility of reversing the budget cuts. In the meantime, several of the sites are finding ways to re-open independently.

“Life isn’t always about the young,” Taylor said. “The elderly deserve our respect.”

Phil Banker, 221-6542