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Commissioners get flak over elimination of meals in northern Trumbull
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Sylvia Kuna, 82, is among about 30 people who rely on the lunches provided at the West Farmington Senior Center three days per week, but those meals are set to end Friday.
Kuna, of Farmington Township, said she eats lunches at the center several times per week because her husband receives his meals through a feeding tube, so for him to smell food cooking in the house is “like torture” because he’s unable to eat it, she said.
Her husband also cannot talk to her anymore, so the trips to the senior center are among her only opportunities to socialize.
“A lot of people come [for lunches], and they stay for bingo or sewing,” she said.
Her home is a “food desert,” she said, because there are no restaurants or grocery stores nearby. The closest ones also are very expensive, so the best options are in Champion or Middlefield, she said.
The Trumbull County commissioners announced Dec. 14 that they were moving their Nutrition Program for the Elderly through the county’s Office of Elderly Affairs out of the senior centers in West Farmington, Newton Falls, Johnston Township and Kinsman Township effective Dec. 30.
Instead, the programs are being moved to SCOPE centers in Cortland, Lordstown and Warren because SCOPE is willing to offer the nutrition program at no additional cost.
Commissioner Dan Polivka said the move was being made to cut costs by no longer having to pay rent at the northern senior centers.
Commissioner Frank Fuda said the move was the result of the county’s Office of Elderly Affairs losing $195,000 of annual funding through the Area Agency on Aging 11.
“It’s very unfair what the commissioners are doing – quitting the meals in the northern Trumbull County sites,” Kuna said.
“There are a lot of people who are worse off because they are older or don’t drive,” Kuna said. “There is an elderly man who walks there and lives alone, so he needs that,” she added.
Starr Spanger, West Farmington senior center director, said the county pays $1,100 per year to the center to operate the meals program. About 20 people eat the lunches at the center three times per week. Another 10 or so get them delivered.
Mary Williams of Cortland, who ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner this year against Polivka, raised the issue Wednesday at the commissioners’ meeting after learning about it this week.
Commissioners Frank Fuda and Mauro Cantalamessa said the commissioners already met with Johnston senior center officials and think they may have reached a solution to keep that facility’s meal program running.
They will meet with the West Farmington officials next week to discuss issues there, Fuda said.