Changes within the UCHRA’s nutrition program will take effect July 1.
Executive Director Mark Farley said the Fentress, Overton, and Pickett County senior centers will assist residents in their areas.
“Hopefully three months in we can get back with those communities [and] we can see how they’re doing, making sure everything’s going good for them,” Farley said. “Obviously we want to see every program successful, whether or not UCHRA is administering that or one of the senior centers are administering that program. We want to make sure that they’re successful.”
The changes come as the agency needed to make cutbacks due to the program’s financial instability. The changes in the program’s offerings were decided during a special-called meeting at the UCHRA last month.
“The biggest change in the nutrition program is going to be on the home-delivery side. Traditionally, we have provided a hot home-delivered meal each day for five days a week,” Farley said. “We just can’t sustain that. With the funding we’re receiving and the costs we have, that program just cannot continue on.”
Farley said clients will receive five days worth of frozen meals to be delivered once a week in an effort to reduce costs.
“Obviously there are going to be some clients that are able to do that and not have any problems whatsoever,” Farley said. “But if we do have clients that struggles with warming that meal and taking care of that, we’re going to try and do whatever we can to facilitate more services and find a way to care for them.”
Previous estimates indicated the program would lose nearly $65,000 over the next fiscal year, down significantly from $300,000 estimated in previous years.
