News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency (UCHRA) could move away from providing hot meals through its nutrition program.
Executive Director Mark Farley said the situation isn’t ideal but would help save the program financially.
“This has been an ongoing issue dealing with the nutrition program here in the Upper Cumberland region. We’ve really been losing money for the last three to four years,” Farley said. “The way that we feel we need to move forward essentially means we would need to move away from hot home delivered meals and move more towards frozen meals.”
Farley discussed the future of the program during the UCHRA’s special-called policy council meeting Thursday.
Farley said he and other UCHRA officials have reached out to senior centers in each of their 14 counties to see if they may be interested in adopting the program themselves.
“We feel like we owe an obligation to the clients and citizens of this region,” Farley said. “If there are other organizations that can do a better job than us, and can offer that better service, then we want to make sure the client is taken care of. We have approached the senior centers of the Upper Cumberland to see if they’d be interested. There are some other entities out there – maybe some nursing homes and hospitals – that we’ve also talked with.”
The agency tried last year to move towards a volunteer-based system but did not see any improvement due to issues with attendance.
Farley said dissolving the program into the senior centers could potentially result in some layoffs.
The UCHRA Executive Board did not meet Wednesday due to not having a quorum. UCHRA officials and board members will continue discussing the nutrition program during their April meeting.
