By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer

Wheatheart Nutrition Project will cut meal service to senior citizens starting next week in an effort to make ends meet following state budget cuts.

Due to recent revenue shortfalls, the Department of Human Services instituted a $7.4 million cut to senior nutrition programs statewide, with the cuts going into effect Sunday. Gov. Brad Henry’s decision last week to not use discretionary funds to shore up the nutrition programs has left those programs, including Wheatheart, scrambling to make ends meet.

“Our board of directors met last week because of the cut,” said Marianne Gutierrez, Wheatheart Nutrition project director. “We were forced to make decisions how to deal with the $230,000 cut we had to make.”

What the board decided to do was furlough staff members for 44 days. According to Gutierrez, furloughs mean staff will not be working and there will be no meals provided those days.

“We will no longer be open on Fridays, starting Nov. 1 and continuing through June,” she said. “We will only operate Monday through Thursday. There are not 44 Fridays between November and June, and the other days will be made up in holidays, like Thanksgiving Day will be a furlough day.”

The cut amounts to 38 percent of Wheatheart’s total budget. Wheatheart Nutrition provides daily meals to 970 people in Alfalfa, Grant, Kay, Garfield, Noble, Blaine, Kingfisher and Major counties. Wheatheart’s nutrition sites are located in Billings, Blackwell, Cherokee, Enid, Garber, Helena, Kingfisher, Medford, Newkirk, Perry, Ponca City, Pond Creek, Ringwood, Tonkawa, Watonga and Waukomis.

Besides furloughing, Wheatheart will have to take other measures to ease the budget crunch.

“We are eliminating one kitchen in Perry,” Gutierrez said. “We are moving the kitchen in Enid to Garber, which is much cheaper to operate than our Enid facility. The rest of the budget adjustments will be cutting office supplies and we won’t attend any conferences this year. Our dietitians used to make monthly visits. They will now be making quarterly visits.”

Wheatheart Nutrition has reached out to local organizations to help provide Friday meals.

“We are trying to work with churches and civic organization to help provide food for the day,” Gutierrez said. “In Enid, University Place Christian Church has called to try to help fill the need. We are hoping to help the community resources come together to fill the need, since we aren’t able to, but we worry that these resources can’t go on forever.

“We hope when the legislators go back into session (in February) that it will be addressed then.”

Gutierrez said she hopes seniors who use Wheatheart Nutrition don’t fall between the cracks.

“There will be a hole felt by those meals not being served on Fridays,” she said. “We are very concerned about our consu-mers. They not only rely on the meal, daily contact keeps them emotionally connected and that can be as important as the food.

“We have found out during these tough economic times, since the senior can eat with us they can cut enough in their food budgets enough to get their prescriptions they need. They rely on us to be able to eat and buy what they need.”

A rally is planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the state Capitol to protest the cuts. Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, tried unsuccessfully to convince Henry to use some of the $105 million in discretionary funds at the governor’s disposal to fund the nutrition programs.