WAURIKA — As Oklahoma’s economy continues to sag, one segment of the state’s population is literally having food taken from its mouth.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has announced funding for nutrition centers it administers around the state. Those centers provide meals to the elderly and homebound citizens, most of whom are on fixed incomes.

The impact is being felt at the Tri-County Elderly Nutrition Centers in Waurika, Ryan and Ringling, where Site Manager Crystal Bailey said there will be a reduction in the number of lunches being served each week at the Nutrition Center on East Broadway, and there will be changes in food distribution to homebound residents.

“The legislature has made budget cuts for DHS, and since we’re a branch of DHS, those cuts are trickling down to us,” Bailey said Friday. “There are 16 nutrition centers in the state and we’re taking a total budget cut of $216,000. It means we’re going to have to save money, and what we’ve decided to do here is to close the center one day a week and not serve meals.

“The really bad part isn’t that we have to close, it’s that we do ‘Meals on Wheels’ deliveries during the week and we’re going to have to change how we do that. Instead of delivering already-cooked meals, the homebound people we serve will be getting a box of five frozen meals for the week.

“That’s going to be a problem for those folks, because many of them can’t use a stove, an oven or a microwave to heat up their food.”

This round of funding cuts also puts a crimp on the process of serving lunches at the Tri-County facility in Waurika. Those lunches, which are available to the public for a nominal fee, provide funds used to cover expenses at the center, such as food purchase costs and utility and fuel bills

Bailey said a schedule is being created that will mean closing the facility on Mondays and only serving lunches at the center on Tuesday through Friday. At present, though, the schedule will be somewhat fluid because of upcoming holidays.

“In November,” she outlined, “we’ve be closed on Nov. 2, which is a Monday, but the following week we’ll close on a Wednesday for Veteran’s Day (Nov. 11), which means we’ll be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

“The week after that (Nov. 16-Nov. 20), we’ll close on Monday. Then the week of Thanksgiving (Nov. 23-Nov. 27), we’ll close on Thursday and be open on Monday.

“After that, we’ll go back to closing on Mondays and serving Tuesday through Friday, except when there’s a holiday on which we can close.

“That’s how things will go for a while.”

Bailey said patrons of the lunch program can contact her at 580-228-3645 for more information on the closing schedule. She’s also hoping to get some outside assistance that would allow the Nutrition Center to return to a five-day-a-week schedule.

“We’re going to try to get some help from organizations and clubs that would donate money or actually provide food that would allow us to stay serve food on five days,” Bailey said. “The thing is, to save money on expenses, we won’t be able to provide food or cook on the days we’re supposed to be closed. But we could prepare sandwiches and other food, or we could have hot food brought in by someone else and serve it without using the (facility’s) equipment.

“That would keep us open on Mondays, but the food would have to be provided by someone else.”

Bailey said she’d like to discuss the carry-in concept with leaders of civic, community and religious organizations.

She also said as grim as the current situation seems, things could have been worse.

“At first, the state DHS was going to close down some of the centers completely, and Waurika, Ryan and Ringling were among them. Instead, we were able to convince the state to only have us close on one day and see how it goes,” Bailey said.

“Both of my cooks are taking a pay cut. Me, too, but at least my husband works and we’ll be OK.”

Regardless the success of the proposed partial closings, the future of the nutrition center system is vague.

“I just hope there’s not another round of (state funding) cuts, because if that happens, I can’t see many of our centers around here being able to stay open,” Bailey said.

“I’ve been encouraging people to contact their political leaders about this, because these programs are important to so many of our elderly people.”