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<br />Memorandum <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />Laura Blackmon, County Manager <br />FROM: Gwen Harvey, Assistant County Manager <br />RE: Senior Congregate Meals -Transition to the Department on Aging <br />Proposed in FY09-10 Budget <br />DATE: February 24, 2009 <br />This memorandum provides further background and an additional preview of a proposed <br />change in service delivery contemplated for the Manager's recommended budget in <br />FY09-10. The re-deployment of existing Federal and County funds to effect the transfer <br />of the senior congregate meals program from Joint Community Action Agency (JOCCA) <br />to the Department on Aging (Aging) was referenced as a priority goal of the Department <br />and endorsed by the Aging Advisory Board in the annual report to the Master Aging Plan <br />(MAP) presented to the BOCC at its meeting on February 17, 2009. <br />JOCCA is the private, non-profit organization established in 1996 to seek funds, <br />administer programs, and provide services to low-wealth families and individuals in <br />Orange and Chatham Counties. Their services have included the congregate nutrition <br />program, Workforce Investment Act Programs (adult, dislocated workers, and youth), <br />weatherization and heating appliance repairs/replacements, and community services <br />assistance. <br />Since incorporation JOCCA has administered the congregate nutrition program for <br />seniors in both counties providing hot lunches on a daily basis to low-wealth seniors. The <br />meals are offered at no cost to registered seniors although donations are also accepted. <br />Historically meal locations in Orange County have included Northside (Chapel Hill), <br />Chapel Hill Senior Center (The Galleria), Efland-Cheeks, Northern, and Hillsborough. <br />However with the opening of the Seymour Center, senior meals at Northside and the <br />Chapel Hill Senior Center merged. The same consolidation took place with the opening <br />of the new Northern/Central Orange Senior Center in the Meadowlands; senior meals wre <br />combined at the new facility in Hillsborough. <br />Just as Aging and JOCCA worked together over the past 12-18 months to prepare for the <br />consolidation of operations at the two centers, they have also worked (Aging with the <br />Advisory Board on Aging, a special Food Services Innovations Committee, the <br />