The Area Agency on Aging rescheduled its regular meal deliveries to seniors Friday because of risky weather conditions, director Beth Herold said.

No one reported needing food delivered immediately when the agency reached out to the affected households to let those persons expecting meals know about the disruption, she said.

“I think they’re about 95% of the way through the list. They’ve had nobody say that they’ve needed anything today, because we would have run it out to them if they said they needed something,” Herold said.

Care providers asked seniors if they needed the meals sooner, and if they would be fine waiting until this coming week, when the agency would be delivering again.

The organization has worked to provide additional food as emergency supplies to these seniors so they would have more food than usual in reserve.

“Luckily, Butler does have a very good faith-based network as well as family and neighbors who really do look in on the older individuals near them,” she said. “So we’re very blessed that we have such a caring community (and) many of our older individuals are taken care of in that way.”

The Area Agency on Aging doesn’t receive funding to cover other services related to adverse weather, but it does work with other government entities that do provide those services, she said.

“We don’t have any official programs through aging services, but we are able to assist people, connecting them with CCR or 211 about resources that might be out there,” she said, referring to the Center for Community Resources or United Way Worldwide.

“Or we could give them sheltering tips. If it’s somebody who’s in need of care, we can assist them with potential temporary placement in a personal care home,” she said.

“We are not able to replace furnaces or those types of things, but we are able in some circumstances to mitigate some risk or help with resources, to help get things fixed or to help to develop a plan,” she said.

For example, the agency had funded the repairs of broken water pipes and furnace maintenance with some protective services cases several years ago, but that was a major exception, Herold said. Protective service cases can include reported instances of elder abuse, elder neglect and elder financial exploitation.

“I think it’s important we really try to teach preparedness and probably get those emergency meals out to individuals for these cases where we can’t deliver meals,” she said. “And I think living through COVID and the lockdown has (taught) some of our individuals to be prepared when situations come up (where) they have to be in their homes.”

“We have developed systems where we can check on them via phone or have neighbors go in and check on them,” she said. “So again we are ... in my opinion, a very caring county that really does look out for our vulnerable populations and those who are older who maybe just need assistance.”