County Commissioner Working with City to Restore Meal Service for Cobb Center Seniors

Seniors have been without Council on Aging meals since August due to employee conflict

Escambia County, FL (Newsradio 92.3) -- Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May says he's coordinating with Pensacola city officials to restore meal service at Cobb Center after seniors went without meals for five months.

Rosa Johnson brought the issue to county commissioners Thursday during the Board of County Commissioners meeting, explaining that the Council on Aging stopped providing meals in August due to a conflict between one of their employees and a city worker.

"What does that have to do with the seniors?" Johnson asked commissioners. "What does that have to do with them not bringing us our meals?"

Not a Funding Issue

Johnson emphasized the disruption is not due to lack of funding. She noted that in October, she saw the Council on Aging being congratulated on television for receiving funds, yet meal service to Cobb Center was never restored.

"I was under the assumption that we were not receiving meals because they did not have the funding," Johnson said. "But in October I was one of the people that got on television congratulating them for the funds that they received. We still have not received meals."

Johnson stressed the urgency of the situation for seniors who depend on the meals to take their medications.

"I take medication three times a day and with each one of those medicines I have to have a meal. I have to have something to eat," she said. "So I don't want any of us to suffer unduly because of pettiness. This has to be addressed."

Commissioner May's Response

Commissioner May, whose District 3 includes the Cobb Center despite it being located in city limits, told Johnson he'd already been working on the issue.

"Although Cobb Center is in the city, whether they're seniors at Edmondwood or Brownsville, I know that those seniors are on fixed incomes," May said. "That's one of the things we've done even when we did not receive funding. We personally and when we went out to the community to make sure people are going to be fed and we're going to continue to work with that."

May reported he's been in contact with Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves, who assured him the issue is being addressed and that seniors at Cobb will be taken care of.

"We're going to do everything that we possibly can do to make sure that every child and every senior is fed in Escambia County and it's a sad day when our children and our seniors can't eat," May said..

What's Next

The Cobb Center is located in the city limits of Pensacola but falls within Commissioner May's county district. May said he will continue working with the mayor's office to resolve the issue and restore meal service to the seniors who depend on it.

The Council on Aging has not yet publicly commented on when meal service will resume or what specifically caused the employee conflict that led to the five-month disruption.