The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many elderly Kentucky residents from getting meals at senior centers, or picking up nutritious items at food banks.
A south-central Kentucky benevolent organization is delivering food to seniors who can’t get out.
Logan County Good Samaritan has ongoing programs to provide food and assistance with utility bills to county residents.
But for the past year, since COVID-19 has kept many elderly residents isolated, Good Samaritan has been delivering what's known as "senior boxes" to those 60 and older who haven’t been able to come pick up the food.
Denise McDonald, executive director for Logan County Good Samaritan, says the food used in the senior boxes comes from the group Feeding America, the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, and donations from local grocery stores.
“Mostly nonperishables. There’s always juice, cereal, some type of meat, fruit, vegetables, milk and then they also get a 2 lb. block of cheese," said McDonald.
The organization is delivering food to senior citizens who can’t pick up the meals like they did before the pandemic.
“We no longer allow clients to come into the office," said McDonald. "Which is why we now package the donated items to give out, where before they used to be able to come in and kind of shop for some of their items, and unfortunately we just can’t do that anymore.”
McDonald says Good Samaritan gets about 250 senior boxes a month, and delivers about 25 of those to local residents. The rest are picked up by local senior citizens at a monthly distribution event.
