Senior Center Cuts Well Thought Out: Letter to the Editor

This is in response to recent editorials and opinion letters published in the Lawton Constitution about the ASCOG Area Agency on Aging and the recent reductions in funding available for the senior nutrition program. We are very careful with the money provided these programs by the taxpayers. Our goal is to protect all area senior citizens, especially the ones at most risk for institutional placement such as the homebound. Unfortunately, for the last year, we have been unable to add new home delivered meal participants to the roles of the senior nutrition program because of the low funds and high demands placed on the nutrition program. We cut expenses wherever we could at the AAA level, the project level and the site level, to ensure we could continue to feed all of the seniors participating in the program. The Older Americans Act, or Title III, which funds this program has been reduced for our planning and service area in the amount of $144,000. In addition, the Advantage (Medicaid) funding for senior nutrition has also realized a loss of over $150,000. As a result, the senior nutrition program has received a combined loss of over $294,000. And we have been unable to add new participants who are homebound to our home delivered meals lists. Demand has never been greater, and our funding has been drastically reduced and we are working to ensure that the blow is softened as much as we can.

The senior population of people aged 60 and older is 17,872 in Comanche County and 10,484 in Stephens County. That is less than a 2:1 ratio. Comanche County has twice as many nutrition sites as Stephens County. Lawton South is the only site in Lawton that does not currently serve the low-income, minority population. An independent senior center means the senior center has an independent board of directors, not that they are independent of ASCOG funding. ASCOG funds 39 independent senior centers through the Community Expansion for Nutrition Assistance program (CENA). The state funds that are used in excess of the federal matching requirements are given to ASCOG for the rural counties we cover to ensure the rural needs are met wherever possible. We did not receive any loss in state funds. Nevertheless, we are currently in the process of de-obligating Title III funding to rural sites in Verden, Randlett and Apache. Verden and Apache are going to instead receive CENA funding through ASCOG. Randlett did not choose that option and they have not reported to ASCOG that they will have an independent board. The ASCOG local match for the senior nutrition program is for one percent ($20,635) of the total Title III program. The rest of the funds are federal and state funds.

ASCOG is working hard to ensure Lawton seniors are treated fairly. The chairman for the ASCOG Advisory Council is in fact from Lawton and advocates for Comanche County seniors. The vice-chair, who is from Duncan, has asked that we do everything we can to try to prevent the closure of the Lawton South nutrition site at the Centenary Methodist Church.

ASCOG has stripped staffing in the Title III program to the minimum allowable by the state and by federal law to ensure expenses like travel are kept to the minimum. Since the beginning of the budget cuts in 2009 we have reduced our staffing by 36%. We are serving the same population of seniors with fewer staff. Because Delta and ASCOG have fewer staff to provide services to an ever increasing population of seniors we are more burdened than ever. The number of sites may be decreasing, but the population of seniors in need is not.

We have had kitchens serving multiple sites in Comanche County for decades. The concept of having a central kitchen is not new. In Oklahoma County, there is only one kitchen to serve all senior meals. That has been the only kitchen in Oklahoma County serving senior meals for over 25 years without incidence of food-borne illness. That kitchen serves over 400,000 meals per year. The central kitchen in Lawton at the American Legion building is expected to serve less than a third of that. We will ensure the food temperatures are maintained and safe meals are provided. Unfortunately, we do not expect this to get any better. We are expecting another possible cut in July 2013 of over $120,000.

Within ten years, we expect federal funds to only be enough to serve home-delivered meals. If we can provide any additional information, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Ken Jones, Director