By Kasey Fowler, Staff Writer
More local churches are banding together to ensure local senior citizens do not go hungry.
Members of some churches have been bringing Wheatheart Nutrition meals to seniors at some apartments, but Wheatheart, due to a $230,000 budget cut from Department of Human Services, had to eliminate its Friday meals, furlough employees, close during the holiday and close some of its kitchens.
The churches have been providing Friday meals to Meadows Point Apartments and La Mesa West Apartments since Nov. 6.
Several local churches, along with a Northern Oklahoma Development Authority representative, a Wheatheart Nutrition representative and a Food Share America representative, met Thursday to decide how they could assist more seniors in Enid and surrounding areas with meals.
Currently, eight churches have committed to help bring meals to seniors during the week of Christmas and all the Fridays Wheatheart is closed through June.
The churches are Willow Road Christian Church, Christian Church of the Covenant, University Place Christian Church, Central Christian Church, Cross Walk United Church of Christ, New Hope United Methodist Church, Willow View United Methodist Church and St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.
The churches officially committed to feed the Enid congregate site at Booker T. Washington Community Center until June.
“We are buying Christmas meals for the two apartment complexes, Meadows Point Apartments and La Mesa West Apartments, and the Enid congregate site. We are committing to buy meals as needed for the two apartment complexes and the Enid congregate site as needed,” said Earla Haggard, lay person at Willow Road Christian Church and local coordinator of Food Share America.
The number of churches helping provide meals has been increasing and the churches are working to continue to bring more in to help.
“We are going to meet with the Ministerial Alliance next week. We are going to let them know what is going on to see if any of them want to get involved,” said Carrell Still, pastor for Willow Road Christian Church.
Haggard said covering the Enid congregate site will be a challenge, along with trying to cover other sites in Billings, Waukomis, Garber and Helena.
“We’ve had more donations. We’ve got all three sites in Enid covered. I am trying to spread it as far as I can and I am trying to cover as many as I can,” Haggard said. “I am trying to pull money out of thin air for Waukomis and Helena, but God works in mysterious ways.”
Kathleen Willis, assistant project director of Wheatheart Nutrition, said she is amazed at the reaction she has seen from churches.
“A lot of the churches are coming together. We are thrilled with the outpouring of the community that feel the way we do,” she said. “They are ensuring our most vulnerable citizens are receiving meals. These aren’t just people; these are grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. They aren’t going to be faced by the choice of buy food or paying bills. A lot of churches have stepped up and more people are donating.”
Haggard said the group is afraid seniors will slip through the cracks and not get the food they need without the help of the churches.
“I had someone at another site tell me that they had a lady that was supplementing her diet with dog food,” she said. “They found out about it and they brought her food. She kept saying she didn’t have money to pay for it. They told her it was their gift to her and she starting crying because she didn’t have to eat dog food for Christmas.”
Pat Sutherlin, pastor at Christian Church of the Covenant, said he does not want to see seniors go hungry because of funding cuts.
“The seniors have been hit especially hard by the funding cuts,” Sutherlin said. “The nutrition, there are people in parts of the state where people aren’t being fed because these sites have been closed. I don’t want to see that happen on our watch in our part of our state.”
The churches also discussed the fear legislators may look at the churches filling the need of the seniors and not give senior nutrition the funding it needs.
“We are very concerned about the cut to the senior nutrition program. We are hoping people will be in contact with the governor and the head of Oklahoma DHS,” Still said. “The churches can’t continue to meet the need that is out there. We are worried that people in Oklahoma City will look at it and say, ‘Since everyone is taken care of we don’t need to do anything.’ We are trying to address the emergency. These folks need nutritious food and we want to be sure they are getting that.”
A meeting is set for 9-11 a.m. Monday at the NODA office, 2901 N. Van Buren, for state legislators and others interested to discuss senior nutrition cuts and how they are affecting local seniors.
“Our Legislature and DHS leader and governor need to get together to find a resolution,” Sutherlin said.
