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Seniors Confront Legislators in Effort to Have Doughnut Privileges Restored
Compromise allows individual size portions into senior center
by Margaret Sternberg
The phrase "mistakes were made" was invoked several times during the August 21, 2007 meeting of the County Legislature's Health, Social, Educational & Environmental Committee in an effort to placate the approximately 20 outraged seniors who were attending the meeting. The seniors were on hand to find out whether access to doughnuts at the county's senior centers would be permanently eliminated.
According to Legislator Sam Oliverio, Chairman of the Committee, the issue arose in recent months over increasing numbers of doughnuts, as many as 14-16 cases, being donated to the senior center and the county's inability to store the goods.
One of the errors the county made, Oliverio acknowledged, was that official regulations for the senior centers have never allowed for clients bringing in food. The breaching of this regulation began about four years ago when clients who had not eaten breakfast before being brought to the senior centers were permitted to bring their breakfasts with them to the center. The problem has escalated over time, according to Doreen Crane, Coordinator of Services for The Office for the Aging, to the point that in May the senior centers prohibited any baked goods from being brought in.
A compromise solution was offered during the meeting in which seniors would be allowed to bring in doughnuts for their personal use or for the group table at which they sit. However, the doughnuts would have to be physically distributed by the seniors themselves outside the health facility. The senior center could "not be used as a distribution center" for the doughnuts, and the doughnuts would not be altogether banned.
Oliverio offered that "a whole trunkload" of baked goods could also be brought to the Center but could not be brought into the Center in that form because "the Center cannot take responsibility for the distribution, storage or ownership of the materials because it doesn't know where that amount of stuff is coming from."
Doreen Crane also cited concern on the part of the county that the program, in taking in the large quantity of doughnuts, might be in violation of state as well as county health regulations.
Commissioner of Health Dr. Sherlita Amler, one of four county officials on hand to explain the county's position, said "the real issue is more…where the product is coming from and how it is transported…that's what the Health Department has a problem with…" The transportation of food is a regulated activity and, it was maintained, the quantity of food that was being brought in was "taking on aspects of falling under the…regulation."
Seniors derided many of the reasons given, asking why the county had not acted earlier upon the purported health issues stemming from transportation of the doughnuts, while also offering caustic responses to various explanations, accusing the county of paternalism and asking that the county "not treat us as if we're senile."
Oliverio also cited liability issues as playing a part in the decision to limit doughnut quantities, an issue that was confirmed by both Crane and Amler as having played a part in overall concerns. Amler and Crane later said that the county could face litigation if anyone became sick through food that had been effectively "distributed" by the county, which would have included the situation with the large numbers of doughnuts that had been brought in and stored.
The Office for the Aging is now in the process of drafting a policy to deal with the issue of food brought in from the outside. Crane explained that no policy previously existed because the situation had never arisen before.
County Executive Bob Bondi emphasized that his personal view of the situation is that "the consumption of doughnuts by a client of the county's senior centers prior to receiving a nutritious meal is inappropriate. Doughnuts are fine but are not a part of the nutrition program. "
Mr. Bondi added that "nutrition is the number one issue and doughnuts should not be part of the nutritional program of the county." Mr. Bondi noted that the senior centers' program guidelines are developed in consultation with dietitians, doctors, and other health professionals and must meet federal and state mandates and that the inclusion of doughnuts would not be consistent with the nutritional goals of the county.
The September meeting of the Health, Social, Educational & Environmental Committee of the legislature will be posted on the PCN&R's website as soon as it becomes available.
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