Collin County Committee on Aging drastically cutting and considering closing Meals on Wheels, CCART programs

CCCOA creates a waiting list for Meals on Wheels program, asks for help from community to assist residents

Created at 8:45 p.m. on June 9, 2009

The slowdown in the national economy is hitting home in more ways that one and is threatening the Meals on Wheels and Collin County Committee on Aging programs in Collin County as the agency is eliminating its weekend and evening meal programs.

According to a press release issued June 9, the Collin County Committee on Aging "must eliminate the weekend and evening meal programs, at least until October," said Marilyn Stidham, CCCOA Executive Director.

The meals will continue to be provided to the area senior centers and the frailest of the shut-ins will continue to receive meals. Mark Heidenheimer, CCCOA Chairman of the Board of Trustees said that the Committee on Aging must curtail or limit home delivered meals to serve only the frailest shut-in seniors, who are the most at risk of malnutrition.

"With the tremendous growth of need for services, the escalating cost of fuel and the staggering increase in the cost of food, we just simply have to limit or eliminate some of our services, at least until fall," said Mark Heidenheimer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CCCOA. ".It is the single most difficult decision we have ever been forced to make. We are hopeful and prayerful that our community will get us through these difficult times."

CCCOA has been providing continuous service since 1976. Services include CCART transportation, Caregiver Support, Meals on Wheels and the SilverThreads Community Store, which gives profits from items sold in the store to the CCCOA. The demand for meals and transportation has more than tripled in the past seven years while funding has remained flat due to the strain of the current economy.

“We have grown incredibly fast. In the year 2002 we prepared 325 meals daily, but today we are preparing over 1,000 most days. In the same year, CCART transported about 85,000 passengers yearly," Stidham said. "The projection for this year is going to surpass 275,000 while traveling over 1,000,000 miles in Collin County.  The need has grown past our ability to fund everything at the level of service that is now provided.  We are asking for the help of the community to keep our promises to the CCART passengers and the frail elderly that we serve," Stidham said .

Programs in the states of Colorado, California, Minnesota and other parts of Texas have already stopped serving their homebound senior clients or plan to stop serving meals in the following months, Stidham said.

“In the past, we have always struggled to get by in the late summer or early fall, when our funding cycle starts to wind down” Stidham said.  “Most of our funder’s fiscal year begins October 1 and the funds usually start flowing again.

“We are studying each service to ensure that we are using the best business practices to maximize the impact of every donation received.  All of our state, federal, city and local partners have been with us every step of the way to develop a plan to address the current issues and to lend all of their expertise to help us avoid short falls when possible.

Transportation service will also be impacted. The changes proposed will be posted in the area newspapers, and online news sites, and a town hall meeting will be set to give an opportunity for comment from the public.  The announcement will be posted in the next few weeks.

Rep Pledger, Director of Transportation states   “that all of our decisions are based on the most profound needs of our clients.  Dialysis patients, doctor’s visits, work and other such trips are the clients that we must make a priority”. 

“We are now beginning a waiting list for Meals on Wheels, the first in the history of the agency. In my years at this agency I have never seen such difficult times.  However, we are determined to help as many people as possible. As the economy suffers, so will the nation’s seniors” Stidham said. 

A national research study sponsored by the Meal On Wheels Association of America Foundation, The Causes, Consequences and Future of Senior Hunger in America, discovered that one in nine seniors are already at risk of hunger in the United States today.  This number is expected to rise along with the rapid growth of older adult population, especially in Collin County, Stidham said.

To assist CCCOA or for more information, call 972-562-6996, visit www.cccoaweb.org or visit CCCOA at 600 N. Tennessee St., at the southeast corner of Smith and Tennessee streets.

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