Jere Wood stepped away from usual mayor duties on Tuesday to hang out with local senior citizens.
Roswell’s mayor visited the Roswell Senior Center to support the March for Meals campaign through Meals on Wheels America. Wood — wearing a bow tie, apron and hair net — served up lunch and then played bingo with some of the folks at the center.
“When people think of the North Fulton community, senior hunger does not immediately come to mind,” said Heather Terry, the community relations director for Senior Services North Fulton. “Having our local mayors as advocates for older adults really helps shed light on the issues many of our seniors face every day.”
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Since 2002, Meals on Wheels America has led the annual awareness campaign to fill the gap between the seniors served and those in need. The program said consistent funding the program can be a challenge with rising costs of food, transportation and operational combined with declining public and private resources.
This comes a week after President Donald Trump proposed a budget that would sharply cut the federal funding for Meals on Wheels.
Hundreds of local Meals on Wheels programs like Senior Services North Fulton this month have been reaching out to their communities to build momentum for the rest of the year.
According to the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger and the most recent data available, about 17 percent of Georgia’s senior citizens faced the threat of hunger in 2014.
