OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – Putnam County Aging Progam has opened up its summer feeding program in Oak Hill.
On June 22, the program opened at the Oak Hill Senior Center. The Bureau of Senior Services asked the program to participate based upon the governor’s wishes for coordinated feeding programs over the summer.
“So once a week, when we have these food boxes, they have five meals in each box,” said Putnam County Aging Program Director Jenni Sutherland. “Seniors and all of their household members can drive up to our centers on Tuesday from 9-11 and be handed one box per person in their household.”
Although this is the first year in Oak Hill, the program’s previous work with the senior age group has made this a smooth transition.
“What we’re here for is to serve seniors,” Sutherland said. “So all of our programs are geared towards seniors. We used to, before COVID, have hot lunch served every day in our dining room, along with activities. But we’re finding now that more and more seniors are preferring to stay in the safety of their homes.”
Since a lot of the people picking up boxes are first-timers, they might not be fully aware of everything that the Putnam County Aging Program does.
“We would love to see every week us get new people coming in that have heard about our program and would like to try a box,” Sutherland said. “We want to see folks that have already come to pick up a box come back week after week. We’re not sure if we’re going to be extending the length of this program now since the date of schools might be possibly changing to a later date. We just want to continue to see this grow.”
For more information about the programs, email Jenni at jsutherland@putnamaging.com
