Management changes are happening for the state-funded senior nutrition programs in Garvin County. However, the Southern Oklahoma Development Association and local city councils are working to continue the programs without interruption.
“Our priority is ensuring that our senior adults continue receiving nutritious meals and vital social engagement opportunities without interruption,” said Dr. Steven Mills, Executive Director of SODA. “We are committed to making this transition as seamless as possible and anticipate few disruptions in meal service.”
At the three state-funded programs in Garvin County—Pauls Valley, Lindsay and Stratford— the cities own the buildings, while the SODA runs the operations.
Previously, the Southern Oklahoma Nutrition Program held contracts for both congregate (in-person at the centers) meals and delivered meals at the state-funded sites. The SODA Board of Directors decided not to renew those contracts after evaluating SONP’s financial capacity to fulfill the obligations of the contracts. SONP will continue operating the programs through June 30.
The SODA Area Agency on Aging will assume direct operations of the senior congregate nutrition services across its 10-county region, which includes Garvin County, beginning July 1.
“This is not a clean takeover or a cooperative, strategic thing,” Mills said. “It’s trying to fix a problem.”
A new contract for food delivery has already been signed with Mom’s Meals. SONP delivered shelf-stable items to seniors’ doors. Mom’s Meals will be preprepared, prepackaged meals that can be stored in a fridge or freezer and later reheated.
SODA is still working on a long-term solution for the hot meals served at the senior centers. During the transition, SODA plans to utilize professionally prepared meals delivered to nutrition sites that will be stored and heated daily by on-site personnel.
“We’re trying to keep there from being an interruption in service,” Mills said.
The senior programs serving Antioch, Maysville, Paoli, Wynnewood and Elmore City are independent sites that may receive grants from SODA, but will be unaffected by the changes.
Even with the possibility of these packaged meals, SODA is dedicated to continuing service at the senior centers.
“In addition to the meal, the whole idea is to socialize and get seniors out there and engaged in life,” Mills said. “The social interaction is just as important.”
The Pauls Valley City Council discussed the issue but took no action at their Tuesday meeting. City Manager Joe Livingston said the food providers told people the program was being shut down, resulting in multiple calls from concerned citizens.
“We just remodeled the building. We don’t want to close this building,” Livingston said.
Concerns discussed included serving the preprepared meals instead of locally prepared meals at the center, losing kitchen equipment because SONP takes it when their contract ends, and continuing service to the satellite site in Stratford. However, Livingston offered no alternative plans at this time.
“We’re going to be pushing SODA to step up and serve our community as well as it should be,” Livingston told the council.
The Lindsay City Council voted Monday to continue providing the on-site cooked meals during SODA’s transition to new contractors rather than using the preprepared meals at the Lindsay Senior Center. Concerns were also discussed about the change in delivery service, but no action was taken.
“We’re not able to transition all things, but we are trying to help the best we can,” said City Manager Sally Jantz.
The council approved funding the program up to $10,800, the estimated cost to cover two full months while SODA secures new contracts. Exactly where that funding will be pulled from still has to be figured out. Jantz said she is considering the general fund and municipal authority. The City of Lindsay already uses municipal authority funds for other public health initiatives, including the pool and golf course.
“It’s something I have to work through over the next week to figure out,” Jantz said.