DeKalb residents who eat breakfast and lunch at the Lou Walker Senior Center will continue to enjoy food catered by Piccadilly, thanks to a unanimous vote by county commissioners Tuesday.
But the mere suggestion of switching food vendors to save the county money brought out more than 100 senior citizens, and their money.
“They like the food they’ve had,” said Marcia Glenn Hunter, president of DeKalb for Seniors, Inc. and a former mayor of Lithonia. “And if keeping that food means they have to pay more, they are willing to do that.”
The seniors pay a portion of their food cost, but the county subsidizes what the seniors don’t cover.
When the current contract came up for renewal, the county put out a bid and found it could save more than $30,000 by using another vendor. Piccadilly’s estimate for two meals, five days a week for 52 weeks, for approximately 3,000 seniors came to $172,800. Senior Connections sent in a bid of $141,600 for the meals.
Since the county is under fiscal pressure to keep costs low, there was much discussion about picking the low bidder. But when the seniors got wind of the possible change, they spoke up.
“We would be willing to pay more for what we want,” Lloyd Aldman, a senior who uses the center told commissioners before the vote. “Since our current option isn’t broken, we request you try not to fix it.”
Commissioners have asked county officials to look at how much fees would need to be raised to cover the subsidy. The new fee structure will be discussed in the coming weeks, commissioners said.
“I do want to make sure this is not something that just affects Lou Walker,” cautioned Commissioner Larry Johnson. “We need to make sure these changes are something we can institute across the county when we need to.”
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