Everyday around lunch, members of Jacksonville’s Myrick Manor gather together to eat. And while they come together to chat and cut-up, their meals will soon be served at another place.

Many members from both Myrick Manor and Jacksonville’s Senior Center get their meals from a federal grant program called Older American’s Act: Senior’s Nutrition Program. The program is run though the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.

Recently it was announced that the city would be consolidating the service provided at Myrick Manor with that at the city’s senior center starting April 1. Residents of the Manor are afraid this means the end of their lunchtime meetings.

“They have been wanting to close this eating center up here for years,” said Martha Sanderson, a resident of Myrick Manor. “I suppose they wouldn’t have enough over there so they wanted people here to come over there.”

Residents of Myrick Manor said that when Wendy Thompson, the Senior Adult Program Coordinator at Jacksonville’s Senior Center, came to tell them the news, it was not well received.

“They said they weren’t having enough [people] over here, but they were,” said Jean Martin, a resident of Myrick Manor. “Until Wendy came over here and made everybody mad and hurt everybody’s feelings, we had plenty out here every day. Everybody came.”

“The program is operated under a grant and according to the guidelines there is what they call a scope of services that must be met in order to maintain the grant,” said Jacksonville’s Parks and Recreation Director Janis Burns. “It includes an assessment to see what services are needed for the individuals. People who qualify for the program must participate in an activity. The program is designed to get the folks out of their homes. The focus is supposed to be on the socializing and the activity, then it is followed up by a nutritious meal.”

Burns said that Myrick Manor and Jacksonville’s Senior Center both operated under the grant and that the number of those utilizing all the services provided by the grant at the Manor was too low.

“One thing I did, back at the first of the year, it was almost Wendy’s one-year anniversary we started reviewing everything we have done,” said Burns. “One particular thing we saw was that particular program at Myrick Manor was not meeting the specifications of the grant, basically the numbers for the nutrition program and the activities. And if one part doesn’t meet the requirements, it affects the entire grant. They (government) like to look at the whole thing.”

However, martin disagrees.

“They are not telling the truth about us not having enough over here to eat because we did have,” said Martin. “We had plenty. In fact, I moved away and when I came back I asked Mary if I could have my place back and she said I would have to wait in line because I had moved. There wasn’t any shortage of people here to eat like she said there was.”

Burns and Thompson said that they had information showing that Myrick Manor numbers were not meeting the standards. They provided that information to the Senior Advisory Committee, which, after looking at the information, voted to consolidate the services. Every member of the board voted in favor, except for two whom abstained from voting. Burns noted that Myrick Manor does have representation on the committee.

“It was a decision we made based on the facts that we had. There has to be people there on a consistent basis,” said Burns. “If we don’t start meeting those numbers (set by the grant) consistently, we are at risk of losing our entire program. That’s where the decision came in to consolidate. We were the only city left in East Alabama’s coverage area that had locations where two separate meals were served.”

Both Thompson and Burns agreed that the changes were going to be hard for everyone. They said that while it may seem that they are not using their hearts in this decision, it is because of their love of seniors that had to make the change. Jacksonville would be at risk of losing the meal program for all seniors if changes were not made.

“Any program that was chronically not using their meals on a regular basis would be subject to scrutiny and would be subject to reduction or elimination of that program,” said Randall H. Frost, Deputy Director and Director of Senior Services for East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.

Frost said times are tough and that most communities are blessed to have the one meal location. He explained why the commission starting to look more carefully at the participants, and why the city is at risk of being penalized if they continued as they were doing.

“The city of Jacksonville is billed by our agency for any meals not served in the center or to the homebound,” said Frost. “That puts a drain on the local resources. Over a period of time the state would not allow us to do that. They would evaluate us program managers and administrators on why we are continuing to run a program where there is obviously not full participation. In the long haul, the operation costs and the participating factor are two legitimate reasons (Jacksonville) is doing that.”

“It would break my heart to know that I let something slide and let some people break the rules and it come back and shut the whole program down,” said Burns.

The talk of consolidation is not new. In fact, five years ago, the city was on the verge of consolidating the two centers when protests led to a compromise. The consolidation would be put on hold until the current senior center was built.

“When they were originally constructing the (new) Senior Center, we discussed this,” said Frost. “I talked to a couple of people back then and I talked to the mayor. It was my understanding historically when the issue arose several years ago that when the new center was constructed there would be a consolidation. I believe they actually gave Myrick Manor some grace period on that, but it is my recollection that the city and residents of Myrick Manor back then agreed on this and now that it is a reality, there are some that are resistant.”

While it looks like the consolidation will happen this time, many residents agreed with Martin that they did not like the way Thompson delivered the message.

“She (Wendy Thompson) marched up and down here just like a drill sergeant and she told us that we had to volunteer, wash dish towels or take out the garbage, and we had to pay,” said Martin. “We don’t mind volunteering, but we were told to.”

“Well, it’s like my mother told me what comes around goes around and these people that have mistreated old folks, I really pity them when they get older,” said Louise Key. “They are going to have problems. My mother lived to be old and we never mistreated her and I never talked to my mother the way I have been talked to out here. I would of gotten a smack in the face if I did. Bottom line, everybody feels mistreated. We might be old, but we are not stupid.”

“I know they thought she was being mean and rude, but she wasn’t,” said Burns.

Thompson said that she got louder talking to the group when people in the back could not hear her. She said that during this whole ordeal that she has only been doing her job and that she reads what the grant program requires her to read.

“I am just the barer of bad news,” said Thompson. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I delivered the message to the best of my ability so that all seniors could hear me and that they could understand me. The only way I could do this was to read it. Most of what I said, I had to read to them. There is no good way to say it.”

Thompson said that the consolidation is stressful, but her passion for seniors is stronger than ever.

“A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of worry, a lot of ‘are we doing the right decision for the right reasons?’” she said. “At every level, it is all about the senior citizens. My heart is for them, and I am not going to stop. I am still going to do outreach, I am still going to be going over there. Just because we don’t serve food over there does not mean that there is not senior citizens over there that need our services. It is called outreach. We never, at any level, want to see service cut. It would break my heart to know we sat back and lost our services for all senior citizens. My passion is senior citizens.”

According to Burns and Thompson, some Myrick Manor residents may have not been participating in the activities portion of the grant program. In order to make sure that the city abides by the grant all seniors at the center will be asked to participate in different projects. Some residents complained that they could not go to the city’s center for so long.

“Personally, I can’t go over there for three or four hours,” Sanderson said. “(Thompson) said we couldn’t come just to eat. She’s gonna make you take part in activities. That’s not fellowship and taking part if you are made to do it. I mean who wants to be made to come and converse with somebody. I mean you come and talk to people because you like them.”

“We have pretty much told them that we would carry them back pretty much whenever they would like to go back,” said Jacksonville Mayor Johnny Smith. “Although we do have to be kind of careful about that, too. They should not get a meal if they are not participating in the activities. But we will try to be as flexible with that as much as possible.”

Other concerns by voiced by the Myrick Manor residents included the costs of the meals and for those who could not make the trip.

Thompson and Burns said that while they will be asked to pay more for the meals, the costs are now equal to what everyone under the program is paying and is just a suggested donation that they ask for them to pay. No one is turned away for a meal. They also said that they have notified everyone about how to get other meals if they could not be at the Jacksonville Community Center.