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Meals delivered to seniors deemed safe
The Meals on Wheels program in Bourbon County keeps rolling, serving hot, fresh meals to dozens of local senior citizens every day.
Representatives of the program, offered through the Bourbon County Senior Center, 26 N. Main St., said they wish to address recent news reports regarding outbreaks of illness among recipients of meals through the Meals on Wheels program in the Chanute area in Neosho County.
Meals on Wheels spokeswoman Deb Needleman said this week she wanted to clarify that this issue does not concern the Meals on Wheels program offered in Bourbon County.
"Bourbon County Senior Citizens wishes to report that the kitchen that prepares the food for the Meals on Wheels program in Fort Scott is out of Pittsburg and is not the same kitchen that prepares the meals for Chanute," Needleman said in a news release.
Needleman said meals for the local program are made in Pittsburg and then transported to Fort Scott to be sorted and then delivered in the community.
"They're transported in special containers to our center in Fort Scott," she said. "They're in big containers. So then once they get to Fort Scott we have 'X' amount of time to get them divided into individual containers and put into coolers that actually retain heat and keep the meals warm."
Jacqueline Sellers, director of the BCSC, confirmed Tuesday there have been no reports of safety issues or concerns regarding the local program.
"We don't have that problem here," she said.
Needleman said "to ensure that all is in order," the KDHE conducted an inspection of the BCSC.
"We are happy to report that we passed the inspection with no issues," she said. "Our volunteers are very conscientious about following health protocols when handling the food and delivering it."
Needleman said there is generally an annual state inspection "but it can be more often if there's other issues."
"What KDHE did was they inspected most areas in Southeast Kansas after the issue with Chanute," she said. "We got a clean inspection."
"They (volunteers) actually dish up the food into individual containers," Needleman said. "They wear gloves and hair nets and if they are ill, they don't work. There are about six volunteers who dish it up everyday and put into containers. There are also a number of volunteers who deliver."
Sellers said she has about 18 total volunteers, some of whom work in the kitchen and some who deliver. Two local organizations, Tri-Valley Developmental Services and Medicalodges, regularly send volunteers to help make deliveries.
Sellers said the meals for the program come from the senior meal program offered through the senior center in Pittsburg. The meals are prepared there, then brought to Fort Scott. Volunteers in the local program deliver meals only to seniors within the city limits while the Pittsburg program has a driver that delivers meals to rural areas in Bourbon County, Sellers said.
It takes about one hour to get the food dished up into containers. Volunteers spend about half an hour on each delivery route, but it could be a little longer, depending on whether volunteers talk with clients of the program.
"We have a lot of youth during the summer," Sellers said. "The clients love the youth to deliver."
Sellers said the local youth are generally excited to be involved with the program and don't mind which route they are assigned, "as long as they can do it."
Sellers said the program averages about 50 meals served per day, Monday through Friday. A new program through the BCSC provides a week's worth of frozen food delivered to eligible Bourbon County residents who live outside the city limits of Fort Scott. Sellers said there are currently five people benefiting from this program.
To receive meals through the Meals on Wheels program, residents must be more than 60 years of age and meet other criteria.
"That's (age) the main qualification," Sellers said.
Sellers said she also conducts a home assessment and talks with the resident about his or her diet. She said it must be determined that the resident is homebound in order to qualify someone for the program.
"They sign a paper to get help with federal funding," she said. "If they're homebound, they'll get a meal."
Sellers said funding for the program is provided through state and federal grants, and some donations. She said the program's main office is the Senior Services of Southeast Kansas, Inc., based in Coffeyville, which administers Meals on Wheels and has facilities in several other SEK counties. Kitchens are located at the Coffeyville center and at facilities in Pittsburg and Chanute. Sellers said some locations that offer the program have "congregate sites" where people can dine in, but the local center does not have this option.
"There are three kitchens and several sites," she said.
The BCSC also offers a commodities program to county residents, which is based on household income. In that program, commodities are distributed once a month. The center also offers a senior potluck, a social event which Sellers said is open to any senior citizen. The center provides the main dish and seniors attending are asked to bring a side dish or dessert and $1 for the events, which take place at noon on the second Friday of every month.
Organizers said the Meals on Wheels program is currently in need of more volunteers to help deliver meals throughout the community. Meals are generally delivered starting at 11 a.m. For more information on volunteering or any of the center's programs or services, contact Sellers at (620) 223-0750.
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The Chanute Tribune reported Jan. 9 that the Neosho, Allen and Woodson County Health Departments and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment are investigating a norovirus outbreak in the Neosho County area. KDHE officials said the outbreak under investigation appears to be related to the Meals on Wheels program in Southeast Kansas. Twenty-nine individuals across the three counties were confirmed as ill after having eaten a meal from Meals on Wheels. Four of those illnesses were confirmed to be caused by norovirus.
KDHE received a report of a possible norovirus-related death in its ongoing investigation of a norovirus outbreak in the Neosho County area connected to Meals on Wheels in Southeast Kansas. The name of the deceased, as well as an autopsy report confirming the cause of death as norovirus infection, have not been released, the Chanute Tribune reported Jan. 13.
KDHE officials said there have been more illnesses confirmed beyond the 29 reported earlier this month, but KDHE is waiting to finish more interviews to release a new count. KDHE investigators must interview everyone who received a Jan. 6 Meals on Wheels delivery in one of the three affected counties. KDHE is still trying to determine in which Senior Services of SEK facility the infection originated.